Women's Tennis Gains Momentum at Invitational

Author: Dan Shea

Spring athletes were dismayed to see a layer of downy snowflakes atop their playing fields this week, but the piddling amounts of snow that seem determined to keep New England grumbling had women's tennis team Co-captain Sandy Spring '04 pleased this past weekend, for the annual Middlebury Invitational, which began Friday and went through Sunday, was moved off the Proctor courts and into Nelson Arena.
"Playing indoors was an advantage for us," Spring commented. "[In Nelson] there are so many lines, and the lighting is yellow; it throws the other teams off."
And there were other teams aplenty at the Invitational. Nine schools, including Middlebury and number seven-ranked Tufts University, each fielded six singles players and three doubles teams, creating the tournament's byzantine multi-tiered, single-elimination structure.
Be it Byzantine, Greek or Roman, all of the players who surfaced in the six finals matches (three singles, three doubles) hailed from those other ancient city-states, Middlebury and Medford, as the Panthers and the Jumbos took all the top spots.
Having cleared the demos off the courts, with either Nelson's sickly lighting or their own merits to thank, two Middlebury players advanced to the singles finals. Nina Popel '04, fresh off a victory over Tufts' Alissa Miller (whose name rang familiar to all the Middlebury girls after the Jumbo stalwart defeated first-year Panther standout Rebecca Duvoisin), played a tough match against Katie Nordstrom in the flight "B" endgame. Popel ultimately fell, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Ditto for Middlebury's Kristin Baker '04.5, who lost to Trina Spear, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 in the final flight "C" match.
In doubles play, Middlebury saw its three teams pitted against Tufts competitors in the finals. The Flight "A" twosome of Spring and Ariella Neville '03 lost 8-5, and Baker and Jeannie McIntosh '05 dropped 8-3 to another Tufts team in the Flight "C" final round. Battling back from a 7-1 deficit, the flight "B" doubles team of Popel and Jena Siegel '04 saw victory within reach as they brought the scoreboard to light "7-6," but their Tufts opponents managed the last point.
Given that Tufts decollated Middlebury in the fall with a 9-0 blow, the results this time around were especially promising. Baker and Popel's presence in the finals, which they reached after defeating
Tufts competitors in their respective flights was proof for Siegel that the success the team garnered at Spring Break's Hilton Head Tournament was more than enough reason for a celebratory toast."We started off well [having beaten four of five schools] last week, we played great this weekend and now we're looking forward."
Doing that, one can't help but notice the 800-pound gorilla that looms immediately in front of the girls in the form of a dominant Lord Jeffs squad. The Panthers, ranked 26th nationally, will travel to Amherst College this Saturday to play the country's No. 3-ranked team in their first dual match in recent memory against the Lord Jeffs. Spring was loath to predict the outcome of the contest, but added, "We're confident."