It is always hard to believe how quickly we move through our fall tennis season. As the saying goes, time flies when you are having fun... and we certainly squeeze every ounce of joy out of fall! The Vermont leaves are coloring up, and it is a beautiful time of year for us to train and compete! Our young and hungry group has demonstrated week-by-week improvement, and we love the feeling of getting better and seeing where our hard work can take us. In the end, challenging ourselves and not setting limits is exactly what we are after as a program.
In this issue of our blog we:
- Recap our first two fall tournaments.
- Highlight the Proud to Be A Panther Fundraising Challenge
- List our remaining Fall Schedule (2 more tournaments)
Middlebury Invitational 2022
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| Julian Wu locked in and ready to fire a forehand! |
The Middlebury Invite has become a longstanding tradition at the beginning of our fall season and is a great way to test ourselves and learn about where we are and what we need the most work on. This year was no different. We brought in some of the best teams in DIII tennis with multiple All-American players and top programs traveling to Middlebury for an action-packed weekend. Highlights included a brilliant semifinal run by freshman upstart Julian Wu and all players earning at least one win in singles or doubles through the weekend, a great indication of our depth as a program. We also recognized that we ended up on the wrong end of some tightly contested matches, which gave us the immediate feedback we needed to attack our training with more intention and vigor. A full recap can be found by clicking here.
ITA New England Regional
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| Robby Ward and Neel Epstein charging forward! |
After the Middlebury Invitational, the Panthers were motivated to make more runs in the singles and doubles draw as a team at one of the most competitive regional tournaments in the nation. We traveled up to Brunswick, ME to compete and demonstrated some very impressive progress. There were numerous highlights that are worth noting. All three of our doubles pairings at least won first round matches. Andrew Mueller and Nathan Jackson earned a spot in the Round of 32 before falling to the eventual champions. Julian Wu and Zihao Yuan won three straight doubles matches including a win over a team they had lost to a week earlier before bowing out in the quarterfinal round. Finally, Robby Ward and Neel Epstein ripped their way to the semifinals with multiple impressive wins before losing a very hard-fought match that was one round before qualifying for the national ITA Oracle Cup. While always disappointing not to have punched all the way through, all of our doubles teams played a more attacking style and demonstrated a jump in level from just a week earlier!
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| Neel using his height to crack a big serve! |
In singles play, freshmen Nathan Jackson pushed a seeded player to the brink losing in three sets. Andrew Mueller avenged a loss to an opponent from the week before (somewhat of a theme at the ITA for us!). Robby Ward won an impressive first round match over a tough opponent before losing a war of a match in the Round of 32. Zihao Yuan also posted a first round win before losing to a seeded opponent in the Round of 32. Making his run in doubles to the semifinals even more impressive, Neel Epstein also battled in singles and demonstrated he is going to be a force to be reckoned with this year. He won three straight matches, all over worthy and challenging opponents, to make an impressive quarterfinal run. As a team, it was great to see progress and the best part of our successes is that it allowed our group to get more matches and competition. We look forward to continuing to take every opportunity to challenge ourselves and to keep at it. After all, we will need to push even further if we want to take a full swing at achieving our biggest goals on the national stages.
A full recap can be found by clicking here.
Proud to Be a Panther Challenge
We would like to invite you to participate in the Proud to Be A Panther Challenge. The Challenge runs from October 12-20 and we would love your support!
Our goal for Middlebury Men’s Tennis is to raise about $50,000 this year. We have been humbled by past generosity that has allowed us to provide the best possible training and competitive environments, maximizing the 4-year student-athlete experience. Specifically, donations are used toward expenses including:
- Spring break travel (i.e., flights, hotels, rentals).
- Equipment expenses.
- Live streaming on all 4 indoor courts and 6 outdoor courts for all home matches.
- National event travel.
- Experts: Bringing in guest coaches or sports psychologists to supplement our training
To make your gift, please visit our Proud to Be A Panther Challenge homepage. You can designate your gift to “Varsity Sports: Tennis Program - Men’s” and gifts of any size are hugely appreciated.
Thank you for your support of the Middlebury Men’s Tennis program and our student athletes. With your help, we’ll continue to fuel their success in the classroom, on the court, and in the community.
Upcoming Fall Schedule
We travel to Wesleyan and then Dartmouth on back-to-back weekends to wrap up our fall journey!
- Oct 15-16: Wesleyan Invitational in Middletown, CT
- Oct 21-23: Dartmouth Invitational in Hanover, NH
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| Andrew Mueller battling on our home courts! |
Go Midd!
