Women's Tennis Looks Ahead to NCAAs

Author: Dan Shea

For the Panthers, whose on-court performances this year have exceeded the expectations of their opponents and even, at times, themselves, came home this weekend and only then asked to be picked up and turned around.
On Sunday, Middlebury played host to Bowdoin College in the season's final regularly scheduled match. The Polar Bears arrived clad in an ominous (and rather less than arctic) black, and, having traveled from Maine and across a neutral New Hampshire, they stormed Vermont for a 7-2 victory over the Panthers. Though Bowdoin had, as the previous weekend's fourth-place team, come in two spots above Middlebury in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championship, the Panthers had hoped to surprise the Vacationlanders with an underdog win and didn't foresee that Bowdoin (who have taken speculative liberties and penciled themselves in on their web site as playing in the NCAA Final in two weeks' time) would be such rude guests.
Junior Co-captain Jena Siegel lamented that "[Bowdoin] came to play. They stepped it up, and we were a little unprepared."
The Middlebury grounds crews seemed unprepared as well: though the day did bring the year's first real rays of springtime sun, the doubles matches were played indoor while facilities swept Saturday's puddles off the Proctor courts. Holed up in Nelson Arena, all three Middlebury doubles teams fell. The #2 team of Siegel and Nina Popel '04 in particular had its breath knocked out, as Sunday saw the pair's long string of winning outings cut.
Moving outdoors for the singles matches seemed to have an adverse effect on the Middlebury players. As Middlebury's Flight A through D teams fell to the visitor, Popel commented, "Moving from one venue to the other threw our focus."
By the time that early afternoon had rolled around though, the Panthers had gathered their bearings, as the fifth and sixth players, Jeannie McIntosh '05 and Kristin Baker '04.5, respectively, reversed in individual play the loss they suffered as a doubles outfit. Baker handily won her round 6-3, 6-2, while McIntosh's was fraught with flip-flops and ended at a score of 7-5, 3-6, 10-6. McIntosh's hard-won victory to close out the afternoon left the vocal cheering section happy.
Though Siegel notes that her teammates did all they could to stave off Bowdoin's win, she was certainly glad to learn with Monday night's news that Middlebury qualified for the first time in her career for the NCAA Regional Tournament. Siegel maintains an eager air to play constant foe Tufts next Saturday at Amherst College.
Though her doubles team will be without the surprise factor that helped to defeat the feared Barclay Gang - Neda Pisheva duo of Tufts at the NESCAC Championship, Popel remains optimistic about the Panthers' chances in the match. Fittingly, Popel's attitude is sunny going into the newly-begun spring: "We're excited about NCAAs. It's great to get there, no matter how we do against Tufts."