End of 2022 Season Wrap-Up: NESCAC Champions, NCAA Final Four Team, and Individual NCAA Singles Title

We are incredibly proud of the fact that year in and year out we set ambitious goals, including our ultimate aim of competing for an NCAA team title. This year our goals were particularly ambitious given that we started the year as an unranked team, having had the last two spring seasons derailed due to the pandemic. Even though we did not win the NCAA team championship, the coaching staff knows that our team put in the effort, hard work, and passion that championship caliber teams do. We positioned ourselves to take a swing at the team title, and in doing so achieved many impressive feats during the year along the way! 

Accomplishments

• Top 4 national year-end ranking (still waiting on the official release to see if we will be listed at #3 or #4)
• 20 straight DIII team matches wins
• 6 wins over opponents ranked in the top 10!
• 2022 NESCAC Team Champions
• 2022 NCAA Final Four Team
• All-American Singles Player Stan Morris 
• All-American Doubles Team Aidan Harris/Noah Laber
• All-American Doubles Team Stan Morris/David Vilys 
• 2 Individual Singles National Titles for Stan Morris (Fall ITA Cup and NCAA Spring)
• Hazeltine-Klevenow Memorial Trophy: Stan Morris (awarded to senior male athlete at Middlebury who best combines athletic and academic achievement)

We want to thank all our players for their incredible efforts and passion, as we felt incredibly fortunate to be able to coach this wonderful group of young men. It was a season that our seniors should be particularly proud of, and we look forward to taking our momentum into next year!

Aidan Harris ready to rumble playing doubles alongside Noah Laber at #2 doubles at NCAAs

NCAA Team Run

Coming in hot off a NESCAC team championship, the Panthers were again poised for another exciting NCAA team run! We were fortunate to be able to host the regional rounds at the Proctor courts in Middlebury and then traveled to Orlando, Florida to compete at the prestigious USTA National Campus courts from the elite eight onwards! We could not have enjoyed the intense competition and opportunity to display how much our collective tennis games had come since the beginning of the year.

Stevens Round of 32 Match Highlights (Midd wins 5-0)

• Kicking off the tournament with a doubles sweep
• Noah Laber and Zach Hilty finished their singles matches in straight sets to clinch the match.
• Box Score

RPI Round of 16 Match Highlights (Midd wins 5-2)

• Earned a hard fought 2-1 lead after doubles with #2 doubles (Hairrs/Laber) posting the first point followed by a clutch tiebreak win by #1 doubles (Morris/Vilys)
• Digging in against a deep and tenacious RPI group, the Panthers kept pressure on across all courts
• Harris (#3 singles), Epstein (#5 singles), and Yuan (#6 singles) each posted straight set wins to secure our place in the Elite Eight!
• Box Score 

Wash U Elite Eight Match Highlights (Midd wins 5-2)

• The Panthers set the tone with a doubles sweep, demonstrating one of our growing strengths! #2 doubles (Harris/Laber) and #3 doubles (Epstein/Hilty) won by 8-5 and 8-4 scores with #1 doubles (Morris/Vilys) earning another clutch 10-8 tiebreak win
• Keeping the pressure on in singles, Wash U forced us to fight across the board. Both Aidan Harris (#3 singles) and Stan Morris (#1 singles) won in straight sets to push the Panthers one step further!
• Box Score

Zach Hilty (pictured above) partnered with Neel Esptein to be a dominant force at #3 doubles all year long!

Case Western Final Four Match Highlights (Case wins 5-1)

• At one point in the match, the Panthers broke back to be on serve at #1 doubles and were up a break at both #2 and #3 doubles, but it Case fought back and we ended up securing our only point in the match at #3 doubles (Hilty/Epstein) by a score of 8-4. 
• #2 doubles dropped a tough tiebreaker, giving Case momentum heading into singles.
• We dug our heels in and continued to fight through the last ball, but in the end Case was the better team on this day.
• Box Score 

NCAA Individuals Run

• David Vilys and Stan Morris lost a tough 2 set battle in the first round of the doubles draw.
• With no easy matches in an incredibly deep and talented 32-player draw Stan won three of his five matches in 3 sets including two come-from-behind wins!
• Stan beat 2 players that he had lost to earlier in the year.
• Stan is the first player in program history to have won both individual national singles titles (Fall ITA Cup and the Spring NCAA Championship).
• Recap of Stan’s NCAA Title Run 

Stan with his national title trophy!

End of Year Appreciation!

As this will be our final blog post of the year, the coaching staff wants to extend our gratitude toward so many key individuals that help our program to operate optimally! We want to begin by thanking our incredible Middlebury College Athletic support staff, in particular Erin Quinn (Athletic Director), Beth Fitzgerald (Team Athletic Trainer), Ali Paquette (Director of Athletic Communication), Rob Barr (Women’s Tennis Head Coach), and Hannah Fleckenstein (Women’s Tennis Assistant Coach). Each of you helps to make our team better and our job as coaches much more fun! We also want to express our thanks to all the Middlebury Tennis Nation. It is a true pleasure for us to receive so many messages and support from our alumni, family, and friends.

Love this team!

We would be remiss if we did not thank our incredible group of team parents! It is amazing to see how much love and support you bring to our program, and we take pride in sharing our team’s accomplishments with you. Thanks again for all you do to support our group!

Finally, thank you Bob Hansen for all you have given to Middlebury Tennis and congrats again on your retirement! We plan to have another celebration of Bob’s unparallel career in the coming year!

Bob at NCAAs pictured alongside player/coach Andrew Mueller!

Thanks again for your support and for sharing in our journey this season! 

Sincerely,

The Middlebury Men’s Tennis Coaching Staff