The Panther men’s tennis team claimed the program’s first NESCAC title since 2010 this Sunday, May 3, when they beat Williams 5-2 on Proctor Courts. The women, meanwhile, advanced to the semifinal round of the conference tournament before falling to falling to Amherst.
After earning a bye through the first round, the second-seeded Middlebury men squared off with third seed Bowdoin in the semifinals on Saturday, May 2, winning 5-3. The Panthers jumped ahead 2-1 in doubles play, getting wins from Palmer Campbell ’16 and Peter Heidrich ’15 at number one and from Ari Smolyar ’17 and Noah Farrell ’18 at number two. In the third doubles match, Chris Frost ’15 and William de Quant ’18 went to a tiebreaker before falling to their opponents from Bowdoin.
The Panthers solidified the victory in singles play with wins in the top three spots from Smolyar, Farrell and Campbell, respectively. de Quant was in the process of topping off a hard-fought victory at number five — a match in which the first two sets both went to tiebreaker — when the Panthers won, halting the match.
In Saturday’s other men’s semifinal, Amherst was upset by fifth-seeded Williams to give the Ephs the other berth in the title game. The surprising finish boded well for the Panthers, who had fallen 9-0 to Amherst in the regular-season finale.
In Sunday’s title match, the Panthers swept doubles play to give themselves a massive early advantage. Frons extended the lead to 4-0 with a quick two-set victory at number-four singles, meaning that the Panthers needed just one more match victory to take the conference title.
The remaining singles matches, meanwhile, were overwhelmingly back-and-forth. After dropping the first set, Smolyar battled back to win the second and had a 3-2 advantage in the third when play was halted. de Quant also overcame a first-set loss to win the second set, but dropped the third 6-2 to concede a match to Williams.
Both the number-three match between Campbell and Williams’ Alex Schidlovsky and Kyle Schlanger’s ’18 number-six match with Eph Howard Weiss went to a tiebreaker in the first set before being won by Middlebury. Campbell was the first to break through for the win, ripping a cross-court backhand past Schidlovsky to take the second set, the match and the NESCAC team championship.
After the conference championship, the men were selected to host an NCAA regional, in which they will begin play on Saturday, May 9.
The women’s team was not able to equal the men’s result, falling to Amherst in the NESCAC semifinals.
After Middlebury won 5-4 in both teams’ regular-season finales, the Panthers and Lord Jeffs faced off on Proctor Courts in a semifinal on Saturday, May 2. Amherst went up 2-1 in doubles play, as Alexandra Fields ’17 and Lauren Amos ’16 were the sole Middlebury duo to win their match.
In singles action, the Panthers got big wins from Ria Gerger ’16 and Fields in the top two spots. Amherst took matches at four and six to come within one match of victory but Margot Marchese ’16 was able to fight through a second-set tiebreaker to win her match and keep Middlebury alive.
In the deciding match at number-three singles, Lily Bondy ’17 was unable to keep pace with her counterpart from Amherst. After winning the first set 6-3, Bondy fell 6-3, 6-1 in the subsequent sets to send the Lord Jeffs to the final, where they would lose to Williams.
Still among the nation’s top-ranked teams, the Panther women were granted an at-large bid to the upcoming NCAA tournament. They will travel to Brunswick, Maine this weekend for a regional at Bowdoin, opening play on Saturday, May 9 against the victor of an earlier match between Simmons and Plymouth State.
