Women set for season after sweep

Author: Maeve McGilloway

The women's tennis team opened their spring 2007 season by defeating Brandeis and New York University (NYU) by scores of 9-0 and 8-1, respectively.

"It could not have been a better start to the season," said Co-Captain Emily Holick '07, who teamed up with doubles partner Clare Burke '09 to beat Brandeis' number three doubles team and NYU's number two pair.

Just as they had done last season, the Panthers blanked Brandeis. This time around, however, Middlebury as a team surrendered only 20 games, 16 less than they did last year.

Even though NYU also outplayed Brandeis (their conference rival) on Saturday afternoon, winning eight out of their nine matches, Violets' Coach Horace Choy knew that playing Middlebury would be a challenge. On Saturday he explained that he was well aware he would be up against what he called, "a very tough Middlebury team."

The Panthers came out victorious, beating NYU 8-1 and winning all but one singles match, which was lost in a tiebreaker. They were able to stop the Violets' three-game winning streak.

Co-Captain Amy Roche '07 played against NYU's Stephanie Tu in first singles. She continued to prove her finesse and talent by successfully defeating Tu, only giving up two games in the second set, 6-0, 6-2.

Holick played just as impressively in her singles match against Katie Lee winning by the idential 6-0, 6-2 score.

"We out-competed our opponents in every way," said Holick.

The Panthers gave up only one match out of the 18 played. After the first weekend of competition, Coach Mike Morgan seems to have effectively prepared his team.

No one can complain about the eye-opening results from this season opener.

"At this point so early on," said Haar '10, who went 2-0 over the weekend, "we're in a great place."