Women's tennis splits a pair vs. Maine rivals

Author: Alex Lovett-Woodsum

The Panther women's tennis team split its games in Maine over the weekend, bouncing back from a 6-3 loss to 12th-ranked Bowdoin to solidly defeat Colby 8-1 on Sunday morning. Despite the loss to Bowdoin, the weekend was a bonding experience for the team.

The six-hour bus ride had the team getting pumped up to '80s specialty hit "The Break," and because of heavy rains this spring, the team's matches have averaged seven hours each, allowing the team to spend a lot of time together.

The Saturday match at Bowdoin started with Middlebury going down 2-1 after doubles play. Seniors Elizabeth Stone and Chandra Kurien lost a tough number one doubles match to Bowdoin's D'Ela and Lombardi with an 8-6 score. Sisters Clare Burke '09 and Anna Burke '12 also lost a close match in a 7-4 tiebreaker, putting the Panthers down 2-0 before the number three team of rookies Tori Aiello '12 and Alex Guynn '12 put Middlebury on the board with an 8-4 win.

"Our focus is now on working on our doubles play," said tri-captain Stone. "It is very difficult to go into singles being down in doubles, which has been the case in a lot of our close matches."

Middlebury struggled in singles against the strong Bowdoin team, losing in straight sets at the number one, two, four and five spots. Stone pulled off a solid win at number three over Bowdoin's Hitch. Whitney

Hanson '11 also won in a tough match at the number six spot, defeating Larger 6-4 in the first set and losing 3-6 in the second before bouncing back to win a third-set super tiebreaker.

"Even though we came out with a loss to Bowdoin this weekend, I think it came at a crucial point in the season," said Stone. "This will give us a little bit of fire when we are playing the teams we have scheduled for the rest of the year."

Middlebury started off strong in the Colby match, winning all three doubles matches. The Burke sisters bounced back from their tough loss against Bowdoin to defeat Muto and Reaves at the number one spot with an 8-2 win. Aiello and Guynn were paired together once again at the number two spot, beating Colby's Davidson and Brezinski 8-5.

Coach Mike Morgan paired Kurien and Hanson together for the first time this season as the duo executed an 8-3 win over their opponents, sealing Middlebury's 3-0 lead heading into singles play.

Kurien won soundly at the number one spot over Reaves without dropping a single game, followed by a solid win by Aiello at number two. Hilary Cunningham '12 also won her match at the number three spot.

Hanson suffered a tough loss at number four in her second third-set super tiebreaker of the weekend.

Clare Burke and Anna Burke rounded out the lineup, both capturing solid wins over their opponents to secure Middlebury's victory.

According to Stone, "our match against Colby gave us the confidence we need

going into the Williams match on Tuesday." The top-ranked Williams team is truly a force to be reckoned with, boasting an undefeated season so far. Still, Middlebury is confident that they have the ability to pull off the win.