Three-Win Week Sets Men's Tennis on the Road to Nationals

Author: Scott Palmer

The Middlebury men's tennis team took three giant steps towards their goal of making it to Division III Nationals this past week, defeating regional foes Skidmore, Bowdoin and Connecticut College.

Against Skidmore, the Panthers quickly grabbed the doubles point behind wins from junior Steve Hulce and first-year Mike DiRaimondo at number one, sophomore Stu Brown and freshman Justin Ingoglia at number two. The domination continued in the singles with wins by Hulce, first-year Alex Meditz, Brown and sophomore Michael Gillim at numbers two, four, five and six respectively. At number one singles, Ingoglia lost a tight match in three sets 3-6, 7-6, 4-6. At number three singles, first-year Andrew Jacobi won the first set but was forced to retire due to illness in the second.

The Skidmore match proved to be a good warm-up for the highly touted match-up against the Bowdoin Polar Bears. The Bears came into the match ranked eleventh nationally, and undefeated in NESCAC play. Playing the role of the underdog, the Panthers came out strong, competing well at all three doubles spots. However, only Ingoglia and Brown were able to pull out a win. Jacobi and junior Richard Jamgochian had match points in their match, but were unable to close out their opponents. Entering singles play the Panthers knew they had some work in front of them, but were definitely in contention to win the match. The first match off of the court was senior Matt Dougherty, who won at number four singles, 7-6, 6-3, despite playing with six stitches in his hand. Following Dougherty's victory, Ingoglia and Hulce both lost close three set matches at one and two, respectively. Jacobi was the next off, after winning another close match 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. At this point in the match, the Panthers trailed 2-3 and needed to win the remaining two matches in order to get the victory.

Meditz did his part, dominating his opponent at number five, winning 6-3, 6-3. In what seemed like déjà vu, the outcome of the match once again came down to Brown's match as was the case in the Tufts match the previous week. Brown was entering a first set tiebreaker just as Meditz closed out his match, and, energized by the results, won the first set in the tiebreaker after saving set points. In the second set, Brown rolled over his opponent, making very few unforced errors while playing the role of the aggressor, ultimately winning 6-1. At the conclusion of the match, Brown was mobbed by his teammates in celebration of the upset.

The following day, the Panthers were back in action against a much-improved Connecticut College team. Unfortunately for the visitors, they had not improved quite enough. Playing in front of a home crowd, the Panthers dominated the match-up, winning all three doubles matches, none of which were closer than 8-2, and then not dropping a set in singles play. Picking up singles wins were Ingoglia, Jacobi, Dougherty, Meditz, Brown and DiRaimondo.

Up next for the Panthers is arguably the most important weekend of the season. The Panthers will face NESCAC foes Amherst and Trinity, Amherst on Saturday at Midd, and then Trinity on Sunday in Hartford. Hopefully the Panthers will be able to carry the momentum from the past week into those matches and continue on the march towards nationals.