Women's tennis victorious in weekend competition

Author: Alex Lovett-Woodsum

The Middlebury women's tennis team bounced back from a tough series of matches on its spring break trip, winning at home in two league matches this past weekend against Wesleyan and Trinity.

During the spring trip, Middlebury faced five teams ranked in the top 10 nationally. One highlight was the team's win over 10th-ranked Wellesley. Seniors Chandra Kurien '09 and Elizabeth Stone '09 came from being down 3-0 to win their doubles match, and rookie Victoria Aiello '12 came from a set down to win her match 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The Panthers showed they were contenders against second-ranked Wash. U., though they lost the match 5-3. The team is now 7-5 overall, and an impressive 4-0 in league play, dropping only three sets in those four matches. The first-years continued to show great promise as they tallied six singles victories this past weekend.

Fueled by the team pump-up song, LMFAO's "Yes," the team started off with a Saturday match against Wesleyan University, with the two and three doubles teams of sisters Clare Burke '09 and Anna Burke '12 and rookies Aiello and Hilary Cunningham '12 securing 8-1 and 8-4 wins, respectively.

The number one doubles team of Kurien and Stone lost a tough match 8-5 to the team of Wesleyan's number one player Anika Fischer and number three Sarah Miller. Middlebury quickly widened the gap with a 6-1, 6-0 win by Aiello at the number one spot, followed by a 6-1, 6-0 win by Kurien at number two. Clare Burke also secured a victory at the number three spot, putting the team up 5-1. Alexandra Guynn '12 - affectionately nicknamed "G-Unit" by the team - won a tough three-set match at the number five spot, coming back from being down 1-4 in the third with five straight games to win 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Alyssa Puccinelli '12 also came up with a great win at the number six spot, defeating her opponent in a first set tiebreaker before winning easily in the second to wrap up the match.

Middlebury's doubles teams looked strong again on Sunday, with Kurien and Stone bouncing back from their Saturday loss to beat Trinity's number one team 8-4, followed by wins from the Burke sisters at number two and Aiello and Jamie Haar '10 at number three.

"All three of our doubles teams won in this match, which hasn't happened for a while," said Aiello. "We still have a lot of work to do, but it's a start." Aiello won yet another match with ease at the number one spot with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Trinity's Amanda Tramont. Kurien also rounded out a great weekend with a 6-0, 6-0 win over her opponent, thus dropping only one game in her two singles matches. Clare Burke bounced back after losing her first set 4-6, winning the next two sets easily 6-3, 6-0. Anna Burke also won in singles at number four, with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Robyn Williams. Guynn won her second singles match of the weekend at number six with a decisive 6-2, 6-3 win, closing out the match for the team.

"Alex played unbelievable tennis this weekend, winning in three yesterday and straights today. Chandra was also incredible and helped us out a lot in singles," said Aiello.

Middlebury has five matches left in the regular season, all of which are against challenging NESCAC teams, but they certainly have shown the ability to play and win against top competition.