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 (10-6, 3-5 NCAC) claimed the sixth seed and will face third seed Oberlin College (14-6, 6-2 NCAC) in the quarterfinals at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The winner will advance to the semifinals at 1:30 p.m. Saturday to take on second seed Kenyon College, while the championship will be played at Noon on Sunday.
The Other Side Of The Bracket: Fourth seed DePauw University faces off against fifth seed Wabash College in the first quarterfinal match on Friday. The winner advances to the semifinal to take on top seeded Denison University at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
Media Coverage: Fans can follow the men's tennis team's journey through the available live stats and video links provided by Denison University when they become available through their website here. The page will also provide general information for the event at Denison. End of day recaps will be posted at WoosterAthletics.com.
Back In The Tourney: Wooster, who accumulated a winning record (10-6) for the first time since 2022, returns to the NCAC Tournament after missing out last year. Last time Wooster made the tournament, they took a close 5-4 loss to Wabash College in the quarterfinals. Wooster's last tournament win came in 2022 when they defeated Wittenberg 5-0 in the quarterfinals and earned a fourth-place finish.
Tough Competition: All five teams ahead of Wooster in the tournament are nationally ranked – Denison (4), Kenyon (10), DePauw (26), Oberlin (33), Wabash (49). Denison, who is 23-2 and 8-0 in the NCAC this season, won its sixth consecutive and 18th overall NCAC men's tennis championship. Wooster lost to Oberlin, Wabash and DePauw to conclude the regular season all by scores of 6-1.
One Is The Loneliest Number: Staying on that recent string of 6-1 scores, junior Anthony VanOyen has given Wooster its lone point in each of those matchups and has done so in the premier No. 1 singles flight. VanOyen needed three sets to win each of his matches. He defeated Oberlin's Shawn Lisann 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (4), Wabash's Murilo Guarniari 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and DePauw's Finley Buelte 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
VanOyen is 18-3 in singles play this season, 14-2 at the No. 1 flight. He's won four of his last matches and is 9-1 in his last 10.
This Season Versus Oberlin: Wooster hosted Oberlin as recent as April 12 with VanOyen giving Wooster its lone point. Yet, Wooster will look to play spoiler after an interesting matchup the first time. The Scots took another flight with Bennett Dickerson and Ian Royse teaming for a 6-4 win at the No. 2 doubles spot. Wooster could not secure the doubles point but the No. 3 team of Walker Wood and Andrew Wissman got close on a 6-4 score. Wood also gave the Scots a three-set battle in the No. 6 singles flight, while Enzo Lopes won seven games across his two sets in the No. 3 flight.
Solid Numbers: Collectively, Wooster is above .500 on both singles and doubles matches this season. VanOyen, Royse, Lopes and Wissman all have 10 or more singles victories, while VanOyen and Lopes have teamed to go 10-8 in doubles. They're the only duo so far to reach 10 more wins, winning eight of their games in the No. 1 flight.
Title History: Wooster is one of three teams to ever win a NCAC title in men's tennis (Denison and Kenyon are the other two). Wooster has four NCAC titles to its name, with the most recent coming in 1996. Kenyon leads with 22 NCAC Championships titles.
