Women's Tennis Registers Victories at Hilton Head

Author: Daniel Shea

While most Middlebury College students enjoyed well-deserved rest last week, the Lady Panthers tennis team was getting into the swing of this season with an intense week of matches in sunny Hilton Head Island, S.C. The grandfather of Julia Stimson Thorne, first and former wife of cerebral Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, owned the South Carolina Shangri-la and used it as a private game preserve during the Depression, but last week it was the habitat of approximately 25 round-robinning university tennis teams, against five of which the Green Mountain girls took aim and played. Now ranked 26th in the Division III homeland, Middlebury returned to the snows of the Champlain Valley after vanquishing four of these opponents.
The games began on Monday with a 7-2 victory over Kalamazoo, and they continued apace the following day with a 5-4 putting down of Salisbury, the nation's number 17 team. St. Thomas dealt the women their only loss, which came on the third day of the tournament, but Thursday brought with it a smashing 7-2 win over Luther College. Though most of the Middlebury women's opponents hailed from other regions of the country, fellow New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) sister Colby College was the final school to fall victim to the Panther machine. The girls were able to head to the beach and begin their holiday properly after sending the White Mules home.
Of course, in a sport like tennis, a team is only as strong as its constituent parts. Junior Sandy Spring and sophomore Lauren Ready put forth especially strong performances in South Carolina, as the two respectively went 4-1 and 5-0 in singles play. Unfortunately, an injury sidelined star senior Ariella Neville at the beginning of the tournament. Though she eventually took to the court to amass a 2-0 record, coach Nate Simms tapped rookies Maren Messing '06 and Rebeccah Duvoisin '06 to step up for the fallen veteran in the meantime. Both freshmen, playing in the number six spot, garnered victories.
In doubles play, where the constituent parts are - you guessed it - bipartite Kristin Baker '04 and Jeannie McIntosh '05 went an undefeated 5-0, while the team composed of juniors Nina Popel and Jena Siegel took home a 4-1 record.
This week the Pantherette fanbase hopes that the subtropical sun didn't enervate the team, given the approach of the Middlebury Invitational, to be held April 4-6.
The Panther Women hold out high expectations for the tournament, which, as its name implies, takes place here on campus, on the courts adjacent to Proctor. Of the nine other teams expected to join us for Mud Season this weekend, two are NESCAC members: Connecticut College and Tufts University. Weighing in from Medford, Mass., at number seven in America, Tufts will be, in Coach Simms' opinion, the most serious opposition at this weekend's tournament.
Coming off a win over the strong Salisbury team, a victory against the Jumbos will prime Middlebury for that end-of-season Big Top, the NCAA Championships.