Men's Tennis Hangs Tough Against Division I

Author: Sean Breen

The Middlebury men's tennis team took to the road last weekend to test its skills against some Division I opponents at the Cornell Fall Invitational. Middlebury was the only DIII school invited to the seven-team tournament that included Cornell, Yale, the University of Connecticut, Binghamton University, Stony Brook University and the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

The tournament was held on an outdoor, hard court surface that was familiar to the Middlebury players who practice on similar courts next to Proctor. The Panthers had another an excellent showing. Nathan Edmunds '05, showed the field of DI athletes what Middlebury was made of by capturing second place in the A-Flight. After polishing off the #2 seed out of Yale in the semifinals, Edmunds lost to the #1 seed out of Maryland in the final 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

"We've made good improvements since preseason and we are pretty match tough. And getting tougher," said Edmunds '06 who only spoke of the team after his strong individual showing Sunday.

Sophomore Brian Waldron, who defeated Edmunds last week in the Middlebury Invitational final, lost in his first match, but proceeded to advance to the finals of the consolation bracket.

In the B-Flight, another sophomore, Ari Beilin, advanced through the quarterfinals, beating the #1 seed, but narrowly lost in the semifinals to Cornell's Nicholas Brunner in one of the weekend's most exciting and hard-fought matches 6-7, 7-5, 6-3. Brunner went on to win the B-Flight. George Mayer, at the top of the strong Panther first-year class, also lost in the semifinal, 6-4, 6-4, to Jean Francois Robitaille from Stony Brook.

In the C-Flight, Middlebury first-years Kevin Bergesen and Alex Scott both lost in the quarterfinals. Bergesen went down 6-4, 6-4 to Cornell's Joshua Raff, while Scott fell in a heartbreaking third set tiebreaker.

In the D-Flight, Andrew Jacobi lost to Cornell's Charn Bak in the quarterfinals. Senior Stu Brown and sophomore Matt Rales both lost their first matches.

In doubles, Edmunds and Waldron lost in the quarterfinals of the A-Flight to the #1 seeded team out of Maryland, by 8-5. Bergesen and Beilin advanced to the semifinals. Both Middlebury B-Flight teams, Oldenburg/Brown and Mayer/Jacobi lost in the quarterfinals. The Alex Scott/Matt Rales team lost in the first round of the C-Flight.

"Next weekend's Rolex Tournament is the big one for the fall," said Edmunds looking ahead to the coming week. "After today I feel very confident in our teams chances next week. Everyone had really good matches. Everyone fought hard."

The Rolex Tournament is the Eastern Regional Championships and will be held at MIT. Middlebury is in great shape mentally and physically heading into the tournament, after two great showings to start off the year.

The off-season rust is almost non-existent among members of the young squad, and the team has plenty of confidence after playing so well against last weekend's DI opponents. Don't be surprised to see Middlebury dominate the Rolex Tournament and set itself up to roll into the spring in prime position for the NCAA National Championships.