Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Season Wrapup


The 2011-12 season came to an end for the Middlebury Men’s Tennis Team this past Sunday in Baltimore. After defeating Grove City College in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Middlebury lost to Johns Hopkins 5-2 in the round of 16. For a complete recap of the Hopkins vs. Midd match, visit http://www.middlebury.edu/athletics/sports/menstennis/archive/2011-2012/news/node/362398.

Despite falling short of the performance goals set this season by the coaching staff and team, we made great strides in moving towards preparing for our long term goal of competing for a national championship on many fronts.  All the challenges we faced were more than balanced by the tremendous joy we shared on our journey this season. 

A couple of individuals were recognized for their accomplishments on court this year. Senior Derrick Angle was named second team All-Conference, while sophomore Brantner Jones was selected first team All-Conference. Jones was also selected as one of the top 32 players in the country and was invited to the NCAA Individual National Tournament starting next Thursday, May 24th, in Cary, North Carolina.  You can follow his progress at: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/tennis-men/d3

The coaches would like to thank all of the members of this year’s squad for their hard work, courage, desire to improve and openness to the new regime. Having three head coaches in as many years was no doubt a challenge, but one that was met head on by each and every member of the team.  Special thanks and best wishes to our three seniors, Derrick Angle, David Farah and Eric Vehovec.

Adam and I would also like to thank all the parents, Alumni, and boosters of Panther Tennis for all their warm welcome, support and generosity.  We could not be more excited about the opportunity and look forward to the process continuing to develop this special program.

The next edition of the Midd Tennis Nation will feature our recruiting class and plans for next year.  Thanks again for your kind and generous support.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Middlebury Qualifies for NCAA Tournament


The Middlebury men’s tennis team is headed to Baltimore this weekend to compete in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The regional site hosted by John Hopkins features five teams with the Panthers playing the winner of Penn State – Harrisburg and Grove City College. The other side of the regional features a match between host John Hopkins and Elizabethtown.

The NCAA qualification comes after a semifinal appearance by Middlebury in last weekend’s NESCAC Conference Tournament. A 5-4 win over Bates in the quarterfinals of NESCACs likely assured a bid to the NCAA Tourney for the Panthers. After knocking off Bates, Midd fell to Amherst 5-1 in the semifinal round. The match was much closer than the final score showed, with the Panthers taking sets at one and four singles and falling in a tiebreaker at one doubles. The coaching staff and players would like to thank everyone who came and supported Midd during the NESCAC tournament. A special thank you to former players Elliot Jia and Andy Peters, both of whom were members of the 2010 National Champion Midd team. Former Middlebury Coach Dave Schwarz was also in attendance, much to the delight of many current Panthers. A special thanks also goes to Ken Jones for treating the Panthers to a great post match dinner Saturday night.

The men seem to be hitting their stride with the first round of NCAAs right around the corner. In particular, the doubles play of all the Panthers is moving in the right direction after a great deal of emphasis on doubles during the last few weeks of practice. Follow the progress of Midd this weekend on twitter.

Go Midd!