Panthers Finish 14-5: Senior Weekend and NESCAC Tournament

As we headed toward the end of our regular season and into postseason play, we sought to rise through the finish line… an annual trademark of Midd Tennis! Senior and alumni weekend was a huge hit as we returned an amazing crew of alumni to campus, as well as brought in many family members to help us celebrate our seniors in style! On the courts, we despite two close losses we demonstrated some excellent improvements and showed that we had grown through the year! Unfortunately, the NCAA did not see fit to give us an at large bid with only two conference teams earning entry to the event. Without a doubt, we will use this as clear and strong motivation and fire to improve and already cannot wait to hit the ground running next year as a team. This year, we have senior captain Julian Wu leading the charge for us at NCAA individuals which will take place starting May 23rd at the Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, TN! Below are the highlights from our final four dual matches and some photos of our alumni and senior celebrations! 

Colby (Midd wins 7-0)

Heading into this match on senior day, due to injury and some needed tweaking, we changed all three of our doubles pairs and this resulted in an impressive sweep in front of an electric alumni and fans crowd at our home courts! The boys carried this momentum into singles play and won all six singles positions in straight sets against a talented team which was no easy task! This was a great team performance and a fun way to lead into our senior celebration dinner later that evening.

Thehan and Reif hitting their stride at #1 doubles.

Photos from Senior Celebration and Alumni Weekend

The alumni trolling Coach Thomson making shirts with an old roster photo from 2010!

A beautiful night to celebrate wonderful careers for Juju, Hugh, and Nate!

Hearing from the seniors always a highlight on senior night!

Bowdoin (Midd loses 3-4)

Next up was a fun challenge taking on Bowdoin. We came out swinging out of the gates and again swept all three doubles matches to clinch the doubles point including winning a 7-6 (8) tiebreaker at the number one doubles spot. Heading into singles play, Bowdoin took some moment, but we fought tooth and nail and unfortunately came up just short. We ended up winning both at #1 singles (Julian Wu) in straight sets and at #6 singles (Andy Yim) in a third set super tiebreaker. 

Andy Yim lining one up!

Wesleyan (Midd wins 4-3)

Gearing up for a postseason run is always a fun and motivating time and we knew we would have to bring our best tennis from the beginning of the tournament facing a tough Wesleyan team on their home courts in the opening round. We came out on the wrong end of a very hard fought doubles point winning at #3 doubles but then dropping 7-5 and 7-6 sets at the other two spots. Knowing we would have to lock in, our squad did just that. We secured three straight set victories (Thehan, Hugh, and Andy) to set up one of our senior leaders Julian Wu to do his thing. Staying cool and collected, he kept applying pressure to his opponent steadily until he secured a 7-5, 7-6 victory sending us to the semifinals to rematch Bowdoin who we played just six days earlier. Check out a quick video of the clinch.

Bowdoin (Midd loses 2-4)

Excited and ready to take on Bowdoin after a close loss to them less than a week ago, we came out with our hair on fire and determined to flip the script. We won the doubles point again, with excellent performances at the top two doubles flights and then went out for 4 courts of singles play as the match had been pushed indoors due to weather. We then took a great next step with Andy Yim playing a stretch of nearly flawless tennis on route to a straight set win pushing our lead to 2-0. On the other three initial courts, we found ourselves in a third set on all of them! Unfortunately, we were not able to close the door on these matches and lost all three hard fought battles which allowed Bowdoin to regain the momentum and eventually the match. This turned out to be our final dual match of the season as we likely just missed out on an at-large berth for NCAAs. The disappointment stung, but we already have been using that motivation to fuel us for the future!

Fun seeing these two take the court together closing down their senior year!

Upcoming: NCAA Individuals

Although our team run has come to a end, Julian Wu earned a selection to NCAA individuals which will begin on Sat, May 23 in Chattanooga, TN! We are training hard and excited to watch him shine after a fantastic season for him at our top spot all year long. In the latest national rankings, Juju is coming in at #10 in the nation and Thehan/Reif earned some respect currently at #22 in the nation in doubles! You can follow Juju in TN by keeping an eye on our schedule/results page as the time gets closer! 

Go Midd!

- Middlebury Tennis Coaching Staff

Panthers (12-3): Adapting and Rising Through the Season

After an incredibly hot start and a 9-0 run to begin our year, our team is now even more battle-tested after a few more weeks of play! Two of our losses came from dropping hard fought matches to teams ranked #1 and #2 in the nation, and a handful of setbacks allowed us to reflect and tweak in areas where we needed to grow! Our past two matches from this past weekend demonstrated incredible resilience where our team made a particularly impressive comeback after falling behind 3-0 to Amherst and finishing the match reeling off four three set wins in a row to clinch a 4-3 decision followed by another road win at Hamilton the next day! We look forward to using these lessons learned and hitting our stride as we have only one weekend of home matches followed by postseason play!

Amazing crew!

Alumni Tennis Saturday Morning of Alumni Weekend

We also want to highlight and remind our alumni that our alumni weekend matches will take place on April 27-28. We cannot wait to see many of you there! The plan for our alumni hit is to play on Saturday from 930-11am (outdoors weather permitting or in Nelson Arena as needed). Please contact athomson@middlebury.edu with any questions if you will be on campus that weekend!

Midd!

CMS (Midd lost 5-2)

For our final spring break match, we faced off against the top ranked team in the nation. We lost a brutally close doubles point and had a point to clinch it. After losing some team momentum after the doubles and falling behind early in the singles play, we did fight back hard and were able to earn two matches in third set ten-point tiebreakers at #2 singles (Lewis) and #6 singles (Sahasrabudhe). This tough test was a fun experience regardless of result, and was a first step toward recognizing areas we needed to address on the practice courts.

Williams (Midd lost 6-1)

In this home match vs Williams, we again dropped a very hard-fought doubles point that came down to a tiebreaker at # 2 doubles. Credit to the other team for sneaking past us, we again were unable to halt momentum heading into singles play. This is an area we emphasized and knew we would be more prepared for in the future! In singles play, we did not have our best day across the board, but Reif Larsen was a great highlight earning a wonderful straight set win at #4 singles!

Reif getting some extension!

Trinity CT (Midd wins 6-`1)

Hungry to get back in the win column, we bounced back in style on the road where we competed will in windy day conditions at Trinity (CT). The doubles was played at a high level and coming through on the double point allowed us to have a turn and carrying momentum into singles, which we were able to thrive on! We won four straight set singles wins and one more in a ten-point tiebreaker build some needed confidence and put a firm grip on a conference win!

Anand hunting down a slice backhand!

Tufts (Midd lost 7-0)

Gearing up for a very tough test against the #2 ranked team in the country, we came out strongly on the doubles court and went up breaks at #2 and #3 doubles. Unfortunately, we could not hang on to our leads and dropped the doubles point. Again facing momentum heading the wrong direction, credit to Tufts for playing some very high-level singles early across the board and it made our job tough to hang in. Although we were unable to secure back the momentum, our team atmosphere and composure began to improve, and we knew this setback would only serve to make us more hungry and more willing to dig even deeper in our next matches.

Amherst (Midd wins 4-3)

In our first 4-3 decision of the year, it was an epic comeback for the ages! After dropping the doubles point and four out of 6 singles sets, we had little margin for error. That being said, our group demonstrated incredible belief and resilience in themselves and each other! We had been down in a couple of recent matches, and we knew only playing free and bringing big energy and passion would give us a shot to completing the comeback. The comeback party got started by Thehan Wijemanne at #3 singles who earned a 6-2 win in his third set, who was then quickly followed by three of his teammates. Anand Sahasrabudhe won at #6 singles next also 6-2 in the third followed by Hugh Hentschel at #5 singles who won 6-1 in the third. The match then came down to the final court at #1 singles, where Julian Wu played with an impressive sense of calm composure and through some very high-level points found his way to clinch the team match 6-2 in his third set! Shout out to all 12 of our players from bringing incredible intensity and passion in this one!

Noah Lewis lining up a backhand.

Hamilton (Midd wins 7-0)

Not slowing our team momentum following a big win the day before, our Panthers pounced again after moving indoors for an away match at Hamilton. We secured the doubles point and fun to have inserted Nathan Hernandez who paired with Thehan Wijemanne to win at #1 doubles and Nikky Kondamuri who paired with Julian Wu at #3 doubles! We never looked back, and ended up clinching the match at #5 singles with a win from Andy Yim!

Upcoming Schedule (12pm EST matches both April 27 and 28)

Go Midd!

- Middlebury Tennis Coaching Staff