The fall season always seems to fly by, and this year particularly so with incredible weather and excellent competition to begin our team’s journey. Our group is a hard-working bunch and one that is incredibly fun to work with and be around because of their high expectations and goals for themselves individually and collectively. One key for our team will be to stay present and to enjoy the process of putting in the hard work. We are thrilled as coaches knowing that our team will keep striving to improve now that we have reached our development season. However, let’s first recap our final fall events.
ITA Cup (Neel Epstein)
It is always a special opportunity when one of our Panthers earns the honor of representing our team at the ITA Cup by making a run at our ITA New England regional event. Neel traveled to Rome, GA with Coach Tristan. Battling some of the best competition in the nation, Neel played three wars each day. He dropped a hard-fought straight set match in the opening round, then bounced back to win his next match 7-5 in the third set, and competed through until the very end of another epic match losing 4-6 in the third in his final bout. Most importantly, Neel left it all on the courts and honed his competitive fire which will serve both Neel and our squad well as we keep building and rising. Full scores and details of Neel’s run are captured here.
Boston University and Bryant University Hidden Dual Tournament
The final stop for our fall tournament season was in Boston. It was a great opportunity to test ourselves on the road against two Div. I programs and to compete against a pool of players that we do not typically play against. Our group rose to the challenge and then some in this event. The format was unique and fun where each of the schools created two mini-teams of four players, and then played 2 doubles matches and 4 singles matches per round across four rounds. In total for both days of competition, we went 6-2 in doubles play and 11-5 in singles play. Credit to our group for demonstrating both focus and hunger to use each and every competitive opportunity to our advantage. What a fantastic way to put a punctuation mark on our October and to provide ourselves with clear feedback about how we can keep growing our skills on the court heading into our development season. More details and results can be found here.
New Outdoor Courts Mostly Finished
We have been training at our new 12-court outdoor facility for about 3-weeks. More finishing touches are on the way, but we are beyond excited about how things have turned out so far! You can read a brief overview about our new facility here.
Thank You (Panther Challenge) and Alumni Spotlight
We want to extend another huge thank you to so many who contributed to our Proud to Be A Panther Challenge fundraiser. Everyone’s support means so much to us and we are fortunate to be a part of a program with such great history, alumni, family, and friends. Without doubt, the magic of Midd tennis is derived from so many who have invested their hearts and souls in our program and we hope to continue to build on our wonderful foundation.
Last but not least, just in case you did not already see it on social media check our Will Oberrender '13 who was highlighted in a Midd Athletics almuni spotlight. Click here to check it out!
