Men’s and Women’s Tennis Fall to Amherst in NESCACs

After blowing past Bowdoin 5-0 in the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday, May 3, the Middlebury men’s tennis team could not  cap their conference tournament with a championship-game victory on the following day, losing to fourth-ranked Amherst 5-1 in the title match. Third-ranked Middlebury fell to an 18-3 record for the season, while Amherst claimed its third NESCAC title in the last four years.

In the Bowdoin match, Middlebury swept doubles play, with wins by pairs Ari Smolyar ’16 and Peter Heidrich ’15,  Brantner Jones ’14 and Palmer Campbell ’16, and Andrew Lebovitz ’14 and Alex Johnston ’14.

Johnston and Smolyar put points on the board in singles to bring the score to 5-0, while the other singles matches of Jackson Frons ’16, Courtney Mountifield ’15, Campbell, and Jones went unfinished.

The Panthers advanced to the finals where they played Amherst, falling 1-5 in a tough indoor match. Johnston and Lebovitz were defeated in doubles by Lord Jeffs Joey Fritz and Justin Reindel, followed by a defeat of Smolyar and Heidrich by Michael Solimano and Anton Zykov. Jones and Campbell were defeated by Andrew Yaraghi and Aaraon Revzin to give the Lord Jeffs a 3-0 sweep of doubles.

The team moved on to singles, with a lone point for Middlebury coming from a win by Frons at number-six singles.

Amherst claims the NESCAC’s automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA tournament by virtue of their conference-tournament win, leaving Middlebury to await an at-large bid to the national tournament.

The women’s tennis team blew past Tufts on Friday, May 2 in a 5-0 victory in the quarterfinals of the NESCAC tournament, only to fall to Amherst 3-5 in the semifinals on Saturday.

The women started of the tournament with a sweep of doubles with wins by Dorrie Paradies ’14 and Katie Paradies ’15 as well as duos Lily Bondy ’17 and Lauren Amos ’16 and Ria Gerger ’16 and Kaysee Orozco ’17. Margot Marchese ’16 and Orozco brought home singles wins to give the Panthers the team win, with the four other singles matches going unfinished.

Coach Mike Morgan praised the drive that his team showed in the Tufts match.

“I thought they focused in well and controlled what we could control – they focused on the details – what works with our energy and our mindset,” said Morgan.

The Panthers moved on to face Amherst in a rematch of last year’s NESCACs semifinals. The Lord Jeffs got the better of the Panthers for the second year in a row, winning 5-3 to move on to play Williams in the title match.

In doubles, the duo of Bondy and Alexandra Fields ’17 was unable to pull out a win for the Panthers, and Gerger and Orozco faced a tough loss as well. In number-three doubles, the Panthers put their first point on the board with duo Amos and Marchese beating Amherst’s Safi Ali and Sarah Monteagudo.

In singles, Bondy put another point on the board with a victory in the fourth position, but losses by Gerger and Fields kept the lead with Amherst. Orozco had her third win of the tournament with a victory in the third spot. Dorrie Paradies was unable to pull out a win in the sixth spot as Monteagudo came back from being a set behind to win in three sets.

Despite the loss, Coach Morgan thinks the close match had very positive points for the team.

“They responded after going down 2-1 in doubles, they responded with a lot of heart – we won four of the first six sets,” Morgan said. “They showed that they could play and beat anyone in the country – they are capable of beating anyone.”

Morgan singled out young players Bondy, Marchese and Amos for their exceptional performances over the weekend. Compared with an older Amherst squad, Middlebury’s young talent shows that they can feel confident about improvement in the future.

Middlebury hopes to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament this Monday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Coach Morgan says the team is hoping to play in the tournament, but wants them to focus on just one match at a time.

“The team sees just taking it match by match and knowing that were capable of beating anyone is enough to know – the rest we take moment by moment,” Morgan said.