Tennis finishes season undefeated in NESCAC

Author: Martin Breu

Men's tennis finished its regular season undefeated this weekend, taking key victories over Williams and Amherst. The Panthers were too good for Williams, winning 8-1, and while Amherst proved more difficult, Middlebury prevailed 5-4. With these wins, the Panthers earned the top ranking in the upcoming NESCAC tournament.

The Panthers started off their weekend with Saturday's home match against Williams. The Ephs are a perennial rival of Middlebury and were ranked seventh in the country going into the match. The competition was held on the Proctor courts under sunny blue skies, with temperatures hovering in the mid-80s.

The competition started off with the doubles matches, in which the Panthers excelled, sweeping the three games. David Farah '12 and Tri-Captain Andrew Thompson '10 showed the way with their 8-4 win over the Ephs' number one doubles team.

The new Panther doubles teams - Tri-Captain Andrew Lee '10 with Rich Bonfiglio '11.5, and Tri-Captain Conrad Olson '09 with Andrew Peters '11 - collected the victories at number two and number three doubles, respectively.

When the match switched over to singles, the Panthers did not give Williams any opportunity to get back into the match, taking five of the six singles games for the win. Lee clinched the match for Middlebury with his 6-1, 6-3 victory at number three singles.

"Everyone came ready to compete against Williams," said Lee, adding that "it was really nice to have the momentum of that convincing win [going into] the Amherst match on Sunday."

The Panthers needed all the momentum they could muster going up against the tough, fifth-ranked Amherst squad. The winner of the match was going to be assured the number one seed in the NESCAC tournament.

The match started off with the Panthers taking two of the three doubles matches. The new doubles teams of Lee with Bonfiglio and Olson with Peters again proved their strength, winning 8-5 and 9-7, respectively.

"The changes in doubles teams really seemed to work well," said Thompson, pointing out that number two and number three doubles went undefeated this weekend."

The Panthers came back to the courts for the singles games holding a 2-1 edge over Amherst. However, the Jeffs surged back, tying the match at two-all when Thompson lost at number two singles. The match went back and forth, with Middlebury taking the number one and number four singles, while Amherst won at five and six.

Ultimately, the match came down to Lee's game at number three singles. Lee's opponent, Andrew Jung, took the early lead in the game winning the first set 6-2. Lee fought back to take the game to a third set, however, winning a tight tie-breaker after facing a couple match points against. Lee sealed the match for the Panthers with his 7-5 victory in the third set silencing the large pro-Amherst crowd.

"This weekend was the biggest test of the season for our team so far," said Thompson, adding that "we had a lot of guys play some great tennis for us to come out with two wins against tough competition."

Looking ahead to NESCACs, both Thompson and Lee were confident, but stressed that the Panthers had some improvements to make before they were play-off ready.

"We will have to bring our best tennis again if we want to do well," concluded Thompson.