Women’s Tennis Falls to Emory, Bounces Back Against Wesleyan

The Middlebury women’s tennis team’s rise to the top seems even more clear after an 8-3 start to the season. After the team won three of its five matches during its trip to California over the spring recess, the Panthers split a pair of home matches against third-ranked Emory and NESCAC foe Wesleyan, April 5 and 6.

The spring break trip is usually a good indication as to where the team is at this part of the season, and they showed that they are a force to be reckoned with going forward. The five matches in California consisted of a match at Cal State Northridge, a Division I team, Claremont, Depauw, Williams and Pomona-Pitzer. The four Division III teams were ranked second, 11th, fifth, and 12th in the country, respectively. The ninth-ranked Middlebury women were able to come away with three wins, besting Depauw, Williams and Pomona-Pitzer while falling to Claremont and Cal State Northridge.

The victory over fifth-ranked Williams was particularly significant for Middlebury as the Ephs, in addition to being a conference rival, have won five consecutive national championships.

“The ladies all know that we have to beat teams like that sometimes three times in a season, so there is a lot of work still to do,” said head coach Mike Morgan. “But for that match, against that team, playing at a beautiful location in Southern California, it was a lot of fun.”

Held at the prestigious Riviera Tennis Club, the match started with Middlebury sweeping all three doubles points, including the first-year pair of Lauren Amos ’16 and Margot Marchese ’16 squeezing out an 8-6 win at the third position. Seniors Brittney Faber ’13 and Leah Kepping ’13 brought their experience into the match and rolled through their opposition 8-1. The singles matches were tighter, in which Middlebury took three of the total six singles matches. The singles wins came from Lok-Sze Leung ’15, Ria Gerger ’16 and Margot Marchese ’16. Gerger ran through her opponent on her way to a 6-4, 6-0 victory at the no. 2 position. Leung, meanwhile, gave Middlebury the necessary fifth point by a score of 6-3,7-5 over Kara Shoemaker who has defeated Leung — the second-ranked singles player in the country — in the past. Marchese, meanwhile, fought against the 42nd-ranked player in the country as she outlasted the experienced Nancy Worley of Williams 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Marchese demonstrated her ability to excel under pressure with wins in both singles and doubles. The 5-4 outcome marked Middlebury’s first victory over Williams in six years.

“It’s always a great feeling to beat someone or a team that we’ve struggled with,” Gerger said. “I think that it shows our potential for this year, and the hard work we’ve put in. However, we aren’t satisfied yet. We want to beat them again in the NESCAC tournament and hopefully at the NCAA [championships].”

The Middlebury women then blanked Depauw 9-0 and downed Pomona-Pitzer by 7-2.

With Gerger out for the singles matches, however, the team dropped its first match of the season to a Division III team, falling to Claremont 7-2. While the Panthers only picked up two wins, they lost a number of close finishes. Leung lost 2-6, 7-6 (4), 10-7 to Kristin Lim, the third-ranked singles player nationally, while Marchese fell 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 and Sadie Shackelford ’16 dropped another three-setter 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. Shackelford competed well in her match given she was unaware she would be competing until shortly before it began.

A week later, the Panthers held matches against Emory and Wesleyan. They lost Emory by a score of 7-2, with wins coming at the no. 1 and 2 single positions. Leung avenged her loss in the ITA Finals to Gabbie Clark, the top-ranked player in the country, with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 victory. Gerger also won comfortably, defeating Emory’s Marissa Levine 6-3, 6-4. Kepping was unable to compete in the singles against Emory, so first-year Lauren Amos ’16 took over at the number six position and showed moments of brilliance, but eventually went down 6-4,6-1.

Head coach Mike Morgan had many highlights from the California trip and the weekend of matches they held at home, but he highlighted the importance of improving in doubles a key to moving forward.

“I think the team is playing incredibly well, for being tested so early in the season,” he said. “It is really nice right now to feel like we can get back to work on some of our projects as we get ready for the end of the season.”

The team will have an opportunity to demonstrate their improvements this coming weekend when they travel to Maine. The Panthers play at Bowdoin on Saturday, April 13 and at Colby on Sunday, April 14.