NCAC Tournament Central | Men's Bracket
This Week's Outlook: The College of Wooster men's tennis team travels to Denison University to compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships this weekend. Wooster (9-9, 3-4 NCAC) claimed the fifth seed and will face fourth seed Wabash College (12-9, 4-3 NCAC) in the opening quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The winner will advance to the semifinals at Noon Saturday, while the championship will be played Noon Sunday.
Media Coverage: Fans can follow the men's tennis team's journey through the available live stats and video links provided by Denison University here. The page will also provide general information for the event at Denison. End of day recaps will be posted at WoosterAthletics.com.
Last Year's Showing: Wooster entered as the sixth seed and fell to the host DePauw Tigers, 5-0 in the quarterfinals. Only two current student-athletes competed in that match and even paired together in the No. 2 doubles flight. Shivam Dewan and Namit Misra took an 8-3 loss in that match. In singles play, Misra took a pair of games but fell in the No. 5 flight, while Dewan's No. 4 match left unfinished. Wooster finished the year at 6-13. Denison ended up winning the title last year, their third straight and 10th overall NCAC tournament in program history.
This Season Versus Wabash: The Scots suffered a close 5-4 defeat against the Little Giants in Crawfordsville on April 6. Wooster had to work from behind after taking just the No. 2 doubles flight and almost got the job done in singles play. Wooster won the top three flights, two of which to three sets, but the Scots lost in straight sets in the 4-6 flights.
Firing on All Cylinders: Wooster is currently on a three-match win streak, sitting at 9-9 overall this season. They defeated the sixth through eighth seeded teams in order, all at home this past week, starting with a tight 5-4 win over Oberlin. They most recently handled Ohio Wesleyan, 8-1 and Wittenberg, 9-0. First-year Anthony VanOyen went a perfect 6-0 across play last weekend to earn NCAC Athlete of the Week honors.
Fresh Faces: VanOyen is just one of several first-years making an impact on this year's squad. Five, in fact, have seen valuable playing time, starting with Wooster's No. 1 in Jay Dixit, who has turned in a 10-7 record in the No. 1 singles slot. VanOyen has a 19-4 singles record this year with a 12-3 mark in the No. 2 flight. Arnav Yadav has performed just as well, going 19-5 overall with a 8-3 record at No. 3 singles. Max Stratford and Bennett Dickerson round out the first years as they have split time in the No. 6 flight as well in some doubles competition.
Swan Song: Dewan surpassed the milestone of 70 career wins in his last outing, collecting his 71st between singles and doubles play. He is just one of two seniors on the team, along with Alex Anikeeff. Dewan has been a contributing factor in each of his four seasons – even being a member of the ALL-NCAC East Team as a first-year.
Title History: Wooster is one of three teams to ever win a NCAC title in men's tennis (Denison University and Kenyon College are the other two). Wooster has four NCAC titles to its name, with the most recent coming in 1996.