Men's tennis extends winning streak to five

Author: Martin Breu

Men's tennis took a big step this weekend towards bringing the NESCAC title back to Middlebury by defeating last year's champion Bowdoin College. The Panthers had a successful road trip getting revenge in their 6-3 win over Bowdoin on Saturday, and rolling over Colby 7-2 on Sunday.

The fourth-ranked Panthers extended their winning streak to five matches, and seem to have found their winning form with just four contests left in the regular season.

The Panthers' road trip started on Saturday with their match against Bowdoin, ranked 11th nationally. Men's tennis was fired up to get another chance at the Polar Bears after losing to them in the NESCAC finals last year.

The match started shakily for the Panthers, with Middlebury's number one and number two doubles teams falling to their Bowdoin competitors. Rich Bonfiglio '11 and Andy Peters '11 won their number three doubles match 8-4 to keep the Panthers in the hunt for the win.

When the contest switched to singles, the Polar Bears were no match for the Panthers' overwhelming singles play. Coming from behind 1-2, Middlebury put on an amazing show of dominance, winning five of six singles matches with four of these victories coming in straight sets.

The match against Bowdoin was clinched when Tri-Captain Conrad Olson '09 powered over Stephen Sullivan to win at the top singles spot. Peter Odell '10 played a great match and hung tough to take a marathon victory at number six singles 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

"It was really a true team effort, bouncing back after losing the momentum in doubles to come back [like that] and dominate singles," said Tri-Captain Andrew Thompson.

The Panthers have made it clear that improving their doubles play is a major goal of the season in order to compete in the postseason.

"It was an excellent singles performance," said Olson, who admitted that "doubles was very shaky and needs tons of work."

After a long first match, the Panthers were back in action on Sunday against Colby. The match against Colby gave Middlebury the opportunity to show off its impressive roster depth drawing on four new players to take on starting singles spots.

Sunday's match got off to a better start as the Panthers went up 2-1 in the doubles matches. Andrew Lee '10 and Olson bounced back from a loss on Saturday to win their match at number two doubles by an impressive 8-2 margin.

The switch to singles proved just as potent for the Panthers who, again, won five of six games to win the match 7-2. Peters led the way in his 7-5, 6-3 win at the number one singles spot. Two first-years, Derrick Angle '12 and Eric Vehovec '12, performed well, taking victories at number three and number four singles, respectively.

Looking ahead to the rest of the regular season and postseason ambitions, the captains emphasized that there is work to be done, especially in doubles play.

However, Thompson maintained a positive outlook, noting that "our team still has many challenges ahead, but our confidence is growing."