Men's Tennis Makes History, Ends 30-Year Lord Jeff Curse

Author: Scott Palmer

Last Saturday the Middlebury men's tennis team faced the Amherst Lord Jeffs in a NESCAC showdown with post-season implications for both teams. Tennis records showed that the Panthers had not defeated the Lord Jeffs in the past 30 years, and possibly even beyond that. Nevertheless the squad came into the match determined to snap the streak, and they did just that. The Panthers needed the win against Amherst in order to attain a favorable seed for next weekend's Regional Tournament, with the hope of ultimately making it to Nationals in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Middlebury started the match in their usual fashion — fired up. Realizing that this match would be senior captain Matt Dougherty's final home match, the hosts came out with their guns blazing. Middlebury ambushed the unsuspecting Lord Jeffs like a cheetah ambushes a grazing gazelle, winning all three doubles matches. At number one doubles, Dougherty and co-captain Steve Hulce '03 won their match 8-4, while sophomore Stu Brown and first-year Justin Ingoglia picked up an 8-3 win at number two doubles. Rounding out the triumvirate was first-year Andrew Jacobi and junior Rick Jamgochian who won their number three match by a score of 8-3 as well.

Said first-year Mike DiRaimondo of his teammates' performances: "They were playing mad good, yo. I mean, I don't wanna get all emotional, but it was just beautiful."

After dominating the doubles, the Panthers quickly regrouped and realized that the match was in their hands, but they needed to keep the visitors down. The Panthers did just that, coming out strong once again in singles. At number one, Ingoglia played an unbelievable first set, dominating his opponent and winning 6-1. The second set was a bit tighter, but Ingoglia ultimately was too strong winning that one as well by a score of 7-5. Despite playing so well, Ingoglia, always the modest one, credited his performance on crowd support.

"I wasn't all that motivated to play at first," said Ingoglia. "But then the women's tennis team showed up, plus two of my fans from Middlebury Union High School, and that was all the motivation I needed."

Also winning his singles match was Dougherty who defeated one of the famed Tsai brothers 7-6, 6-1. Following Dougherty's win, the Panthers led the match 3-0 and needed only one more win in order to clinch the victory. As Dougherty was putting the finishing touches on his victim, Hulce found himself in an all-out battle at number two singles. Hulce had lost the first set 4-6, but stormed back to win the second 6-4. In the third set while running for a drop shot, Hulce ran straight into a metal bench, knocking the bench on its side and badly scraping up his leg in the process. Despite the injury, Hulce continued the match, unnerved, but ultimately lost the third set 4-6.

At number four singles, Jacobi was also in a tight battle. His opponent continually tried to pump himself up by groaning excessively and calling out the score at random times. Like Hulce, Jacobi also split sets, and also ultimately suffered defeat, his first of the season.

"This was by far the most boring match I've ever taken part in," said Jacobi. "I would have fallen asleep if the kid hadn't sounded like a dying cow every time he hit the ball. It's never an enjoyable experience losing matches to kids like that."

Following Jacobi's loss, the Panther lead was cut to 3-2 and once again the burden to close out the match came upon Brown and first-year Alex Meditz. Brown, relishing his role as the closer, beat Meditz to the punch, winning his number six singles match 6-4, 6-1. Brown's match lacked the usual nail-biting intensity that some of his past matches have, but that was mostly because he was in control of the match the entire time, and even the thought never crossed his mind. Following Brown's win, Meditz won the second set of his match 6-0 after dropping the first set in a tiebreaker. Meditz ultimately closed out the match in a super tiebreaker for the third set, 10-4, giving the Panthers a 5-2 win.

Also good news for the Panthers on the day was the discovery that the team had recently been ranked 14th in the most recent national poll. This coming weekend, the Panthers will travel to Amherst for NESCAC Championships, which is an individual tournament and does not have any bearing on team rankings. It will, however have bearing on individual doubles and singles rankings, and will be a major factor in whom, if any, Middlebury Panthers will be headed to individual nationals. The following weekend will be team Regionals, with the top two teams from the region headed to California. The Panthers have now done the dirty work needed to put themselves in position to make Nationals; they now face the even tougher task of closing the deal.