Home court advantage serves men's tennis well in invitational

Author: Robbie de Picciotto

Once again, the Middlebury men's tennis team had an impressive showing in their annual invitational. Seven other schools participated, including NESCAC opponents Bates, Bowdoin, Colby and Trinity, but it was mostly Middlebury players vying for the tournament's titles.

Alex Scott '07 and Conrad Olsen '09 both reached the A-flight singles semi-finals, with Scott winning the division in a 7-5, 3-6, (10-6) victory over Brian Marsden of Trinity. Middlebury also dominated the B-flight singles, with both Filip Marinkovic '08 and Andrew Thomson '10 reaching the finals. The first-year members of the team stood up to all of the hype about their talent and finished with positive results in the tournament, as Thomson, Andrew Lee '10, Chris Mason '10 and Eliot Jia '10 all won at least one match in singles play.

The team also made a strong showing in doubles play, with the A-flight doubles final featuring an all-Middlebury match, with Scott and George Mayer '07 versus Marinkovic and Olson.

Marinkovic won all of his singles and doubles matches, proving that he is ready to step up as an upper-classman and help the team get back to the national championship finals. When asked how he was able to achieve such outstanding results, Marinkovic only spoke about how great it is to be on such a fun and successful team. Individually, the Canadian was pleased with his performance but preferred to comment on the entire team's victories using an analogy Americans would understand, "we showed the ferocity of the '82 49ers but the composure of the '76 Steelers."

Scott also won all of his matches. Inclement weather forced several of the matches to be played in Nelson Arena and Scott used the indoor courts to his benefit. With a rubbery surface, these indoor courts are extremely fast and played to Middlebury's advantage because the College's players are used to practicing on this speedy surface. With a large serve, Scott held with ease and won many short points, helping to conserve energy that carried him through the tournament. Fellow senior George Mayer, who was a mere spectator of singles play due to muscle tendonitis in his arm, commented that Scott was "serving absolute bombs in Nelson." The results were positive for the Middlebury squad, who looks to carry this momentum into next week's ITA tournament at Williams College.

The results from this weekend confirm that Coach Dave Schwarz has put together another talented team that is ready and excited for the all-important spring season.