Women’s tennis opens fall with tough competition at Williams Invitational

In the round-robin Williams Invitational opener against Vassar, Skidmore and Williams, the women’s tennis team came away with a positive impression and an eye on the ITA Championships next weekend. The Panthers are dealing with the loss of four juniors studying abroad but didn’t let this stop them from kicking the season off with a promising start.

In the Saturday singles matches Brittany Faber ’13, Leah Kepping ’13, Sally Wilkey ’12, Whitney Hanson ’11 and Lauren Kelly ’13 brought home victories in Round 1; Wilkey, Dorrie Paradies ’14, Hanson and Blake Harries ’13 also came out on top in Round 2. The doubles matches were similarly kind to Middlebury, with victories by Faber/Kepping and Paradies/Hanson in Round 1 and Alexandra McAtee ’13/Wilkey and Paradies/Hanson in Round 2.

Captain Wilkey was quick to praise the team’s overall performance, as well as the contribution of the newest member of the team.

“Despite missing a third of our team, I think we had a promising start. We all competed very well and continued to improve with every match. Our only freshman, Dorrie Paradies, had a very impressive weekend for her first college tournament. She is a wonderful new addition to the team,” said Wilkey.

Sunday proved to be more difficult with many singles matches against Williams players, all of which were won by the home-team Ephs. However, Middlebury took two of the three doubles matches, so they finished the day on a high note. Wilkey acknowledged the difficulties of facing the strong Williams squad, but didn’t come away discouraged.

“I think overall we made a strong showing at Williams, but that it not to say that we still don’t have a long way to go. Hopefully we can continue to achieve success and work on our games when we travel to Boston this weekend,” said Wilkey.

As the Panthers head out on another roadtrip the second weekend of the season, the team will look to build on this performance and return with even better results.