Midd Tennis Nation: Fall Season 2022: Panthers Are Back in the House!

It’s go time! Our Panthers have been back to work on campus for a couple of weeks and we have two upcoming tournaments. This weekend we will host six other schools to compete in the Middlebury Invitational 2022 starting on Saturday. The very next week we will head to Maine to compete in our New England Regional Fall ITA Championships!

Captain Robby Ward enjoying some time in the spotlight!

Expectations and Goals for the Year

The Panthers return a balanced squad that has a great blend of experience, youth, hunger, and of course passion for the game and getting better at this sport we love! In the offseason, us coaches sometimes get asked, how good will your team be this year? The honest answer is we do not know how good we can become until we start putting in the work, and we plan on doing just that! We plan find out what the best version of our team can be this year, to ingrain grittiness into our team DNA, and to build a team culture that brings out the best in each other. We always set our sights on competing for a national championship and we will commit to pursuing our process goals relentlessly to give us the very best shot at achieving our biggest dreams.

New Members

We have four new team members that we want to welcome to our family that include our three freshmen Hugh Henschel, Nathan Jackson, and Julian Wu. We can tell right away that these three will not only be good friends amongst each other but will also easily blend right into our team. They are bright, passionate about getting better, and bring an enthusiasm to what we do each day that is contagious! We will do more individual spotlights on these guys later in the fall so everyone can learn more about them.

Two of our three freshmen on picture day!
(Nathan Jackson and Julian Wu)

We also are welcoming our new assistant coach Tristan Kaye, who has already brought a lot to our Panther squad. Feels like he has been here for years already as he is fully dialed in! As a coaching staff, we are thrilled to take on our high ambitions with this group to see how good we can get and how much fun we can have in the process!

Captains and Study Abroad Crew

Aidan Harris, Andrew Mueller, and Robby Ward are our three Panther. captains this year. We have known since the moment they set foot on campus as freshmen they would be great leaders and we expect them to continue lead as well as they already have been now that they are captains in name to! They will also lead the charge of integrating our new team members into the fold.

Four of our Panther beasts are studying abroad, of course together, in London this fall semester (Max Kim, Aidan Harris, Noah Laber, and Joe Mairs). We wish them an awesome trip and love that they will be able to train together and stay in shape while they are there. We will miss them but know they will bring another layer of travels, experience, and perspective to our group upon their return in the Spring!

2022 Fall Schedule

Our fall tournament schedule includes hosting one event and traveling to three others. We will take on some of the fiercest competition in DIII as well as some DI opponents at the Dartmouth Invitational.