Tennis Triumph

GAMBIER, Ohio (May 23, 2005) Kenyon seniors Mike Herrick and Borko Tesic created a stir during the doubles portion of the NCAA Division III Men's Tennis Championship hosted by the University of California, Santa Cruz. The Kenyon tandem upset the tournamen's No. 3-seeded doubles team before bowing out of play in Sunday's second round.

Herrick and Tesic, the first Kenyon doubles team to play on the national stage since 1995, opened up their tournament trail Saturday against Brian Marsden and Brett Ramsey of Trinity College. Only 16 doubles teams were invited to the national tournament and the Trinity duo was seeded as the third-best in the bracket. Herrick and Tesic, however, had no problems in disposing of Marsden and Ramsey. The Lords posted a quick 6-2, 6-4 win and advanced to the national quarterfinal round.

In that quarterfinal round, which took place Sunday afternoon, Herrick and Tesic were eliminated from play by the doubles team of Andrew Elling and Michael Thoeresz from the University of Redlands. Despite the 6-3, 6-4 loss to Elling and Thoeresz, Herrick and Tesic became the first Kenyon doubles team to get past the first round of the national doubles tournament since Bob Zabel '89 and Bill Jonas '92 did so in 1989.

In addition to earning a spot in the doubles championship, Tesic also received a berth in the NCAA singles tournament for the second straight season. He was named the No. 7 seed in the 32-player field and began singles play Saturday morning against Quinn Caldaron of California Lutheran. Caldaron proved too much for Tesic to handle and the Kenyon senior was eliminated from the singles tournament after a 6-3, 6-0 defeat. Caldaron advanced all the way to the semifinal round before he was ousted.

Herrick and Tesic led Kenyon to a 16-6 record this season and the program's fourth straight North Coast Athletic Conference title. Tesic wrapped up his final season of collegiate play with a 19-3 singles record, and a 13-5 doubles record with Herrick.