Women fall to UMass before 7-2 Tufts win

Author: Heather Wright

The Middlebury College women's tennis team played two matches this past week traveling to Division I University of Massachusetts (UMass) and later hosting Tufts at the Proctor courts. The Panthers fell to UMass but were able to continue dominating their NESCAC competition with a huge win over Tufts.

Middlebury fell to a strong UMass team 6-1. The Panthers were unable to win any singles matches but showed their persistent strength at doubles. Junior Amy Roche and first-year Elizabeth Emery came out on top with an 8-4 win. Sophomore Amy Berkman and first-year Clare Burke won 8-3.

"Berkman did especially well as she helped captured a huge doubles win against DI UMass," said Emily Holick '07.

Middlebury experienced much more success as they hosted Tufts. They won 7-2 against the Jumbos and won five of six singles matches and two of three doubles. Roche "showed her amazing endurance once again," said Maren Messing '06 after coming back from losing the second set to dominate her opponent in the third for a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 victory.

Amanda Berck '08 "played through a shoulder injury and still brushed her opponent off the court," said Holick. Holick played number three singles and had a big win against Tufts' Jess Knez.

The doubles teams Roche/Emery defeated their opponents 8-2. While "Emily Holick and Amanda Berck played through injuries to win a close match that put us up 2-1 going into singles," said Berkman.

The win against Tufts was very important for the Panthers and the team was very satisfied with the results. The first-years (Emery, Burke, Liz Stone, Chandra Kurien) have all had very solid rookie seasons. "They have still been providing a solid backbone for our team," said Holick.

Messing stated, "I think this win demonstrates the depth of our team, which will be the key to beating better teams. I think everyone is stepping it up as we come into the real heart of our season. [Tufts] was a good win for us, and will help us as we move towards our last dual match versus Williams next week."

Middlebury next hosts Williams on Oct. 11 at the Proctor courts. After that they travel to Amherst for their last challenge at the New England Women's Invitational Tennis Tournament on Oct. 14-16.

NEWITT is the culmination of their season and the Panthers are ready to prove just how strong they really are. Holick believes "the team is still building momentum in the next two weeks leading up to the NEWITT tournament where we hope to be playing our best tennis yet."