Panther tennis tops Trinity

Author: Martin Breu

Men's tennis returned to campus this weekend in a big way, defeating Skidmore, Wesleyan and Trinity. The Panthers rolled over Skidmore and Wesleyan on Saturday, winning by margins of 7-2 and 8-1, respectively. Sunday's match against Trinity was a little closer, but the Panthers dug deep to win 6-3.

Men's tennis started their weekend with their morning match against Skidmore in the Duke Nelson Recreational Center. The Panthers began strongly sweeping all three doubles matches. David Farah '12 and tri-captain Andrew Thomson '10 led Middlebury with an 8-2 victory at the number one doubles spot. When the match switched to singles, the Panthers remained tough, dropping only two of the six singles games.

After a short break, the Panthers were back in action, this time against Wesleyan. The doubles teams proved their dominance again, sweeping their matches. Chris Mason '10 and Rich Bonfiglio '11 dominated their competitors 8-2 at the number one doubles spot. Tri-captain Thomson was happy with how the doubles teams played, saying "our doubles play has improved from last year."

The Panthers did not disappoint in singles, either, taking five of six matches. Peter Odell '10 showed the way with his 6-2, 6-2 victory as the number one singles player. First-year David Farah was also impressive with his 6-3, 6-3 win in the number two game.

On Sunday, the tennis action headed outside to the courts behind Proctor Hall for the showdown with Trinity College. Under an overcast sky with intermittent sunshine, the Panthers hung tough to fight off a strong Trinity team. The match started with Middlebury winning two of its three doubles matches. Farah and Thomson again impressed the crowd with an 8-3 victory at number one doubles. Tri-captains Conrad Olson '09 and Andrew Lee '10 had their work cut out for them with the number two Trinity doubles squad, but they battled to win in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (6).

After a quick team meeting, the Panthers took to the courts for their singles matches. Olson led the team with his 6-3, 6-3 win to clinch the number one spot for Middlebury. At the number two spot, Thomson had a much tougher match; after falling behind early, he found his form and rallied to win 1-6, 7-5, 6-3.

When asked to identify a significant game of the match, Thomson pointed to Andy Peters's '10 victory at number four singles; Peters has yet to lose a singles match this season. Thomson credited Peters' excellent play to "work[ing] extremely hard and [making] a huge improvement in his game from last year."

The Panthers have just returned from their spring break trip to California for some training and matches. They recorded wins over Azusa Pacific, Laverne, Redlands and Pacific Lutheran, with two close losses to UC-Santa Cruz and Claremont-McKenna.

Thomson was complementary of the Panthers' efforts so far, but said that "the team