Earning opportunities to compete together. This was a key theme for our team as we wrapped up regular season play and then hosted our NESCAC conference tournament. As we reached the phase of the year where you have to earn your ticket to postseason events and each round is win or go home, there exists a special motivation in that we want to do everything we can to literally create more opportunities to go out and compete together. There is nothing like the college team format in terms of bring together intensity, passion, and magic... created from taking on challenging opponents and testing ourselves to see how well we can play as a group. Having waded through some different forms of adversity, experienced ups and downs, our group displayed brilliant grit and determination en route to winning the 2025 NESCAC tournament and officially punched our ticket to NCAAs! I would hazard to guess we might be one of the only teams ever to win a conference tournament vanquishing three consecutive opponents that beat us earlier in the season! What a special run and the best part is, we get to keep competing together again soon!
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Midd! |
Last Three Regular Season Matches
We won two of our final three NESCAC regular season matches. We took a tight 4-3 loss to Williams where we battled hard and earned solid victories at #1 (Laber), #3 (Epstein), and #5 (Wijemanne), but did not have enough punch to get over the line and in addition took an injury that forced us to retire in one of our matches. The box score can be seen here.
That being said, we felt like we dug deep and came away with a feeling that we had better tennis ahead of us and set our sights on proving that during the next weekend. Next up, was two final home regular season matches where the boys really shined! We took out Wesleyan 4-0 followed by Trinity (CT) 7-0! An exciting part of these two matches is that our doubles came out firing in both matches earning two wins at #1 doubles (Laber/Wijemanne), two wins at #2 doubles (Hentschel/Kondamuri) and one win at #3 doubles (Larsen/Epstein). We followed up our strong doubles play with some excellent showings in singles and could feel our growing confidence as a group at just the right time. Full box scores can be seen here and here.
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Reif and Neel teaming up! |
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Wijemanne lining up to rip! |
Senior and Alumni Weekend
Special shout out to our seniors, families, and alumni who made our Wesleyan and Trinity home matches a truly special environment. The collective energy and support we felt, injected us with a boost of confidence and fire that carried us that weekend and sparked us to feel like we were getting ready to peak as we headed toward postseason play. Here is a great photo from the weekend!
Love the support from our Midd Alum Family! |
NESCAC Quarterfinal (Midd beats Williams 4-0)
In the first stop on our payback tour, we faced off with Williams on our brand-new outdoor courts. Having lost to them in a nail-biter two weeks prior, we knew we had to come out firing and we did just that! We kicked off the match by earning some excellent doubles wins with #1 doubles starting the party (Wijemanne/Laber) followed by #2 doubles (Kondamuri/Larsen) clinching the doubles point with some electric energy! Third doubles remained unfinished but was on a great track as well. We then earned three hard fought straight set victories at #s 4-6 singles (Wijemanne, Hentschel, Larsen) to put the match to bed! We were nearing the finish line at some of the other matches as well, and it was a fun atmosphere to be a part of from start to finish. The full box score can be seen here.
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Hentschel and Kondamuri on fire! |
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Laber amped! |
NESCAC Semifinal (Midd beats Tufts 4-3)
Next stop on our revenge track we took on Tufts indoors in Nelson Arena due to rain. Tufts had an incredibly strong regular season, and we knew we would need to come out and play fearlessly to give us a chance and that we did! We secured the key doubles point beginning again with #1 doubles (Wijemanne/Laber) followed by #3 doubles (Epstein/Larsen) who fought off a furious comeback attempt. With growing confidence and momentum, we kept battling from the get-go in singles play. We needed three more points to get across the line, and knew there would be no easy matches. At #4 singles (Wijemanne) competed with exceptional poise winning 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 after clawing back from an early deficit to having had a couple of set points in the first set to then staying composed throughout to earn an excellent win! Next up with his own three set accomplishment at #3 singles (Epstein) won a thriller of a back-and-forth matchup winning 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in true warrior like fashion! Finally, the stage ended up being set for #5 singles (Hentschel) to secure the clinching point for the second day in a row with a resounding 6-3, 6-2 victory where he played some nearly flawless tennis with all eyes on him at the end of the match! The full box score can be seen here. Click on the image below to see Hugh Hentschel serve up a massive ace to send our team to the conference title match!
NESCAC Final (Midd beats Bowdoin 4-1)
For the final stop on our avengers path, we matched up with Bowdoin. Our goal was to play free and to play with joy, and we were able to do just that which is not always easy coming off big wins the two days prior. Again doubles set the stage for us. Similar to the day before, we secured the massive doubles point with wins from #1 doubles (Wijemanne/Laber) followed by #3 doubles (Epstein/Larsen). Heading into singles play, we found ourselves in incredibly competitive first sets across the board. After dropping the first set at #6 singles, it was looking like Bowdoin might find some momentum. However, displaying our rising grit we won three hard fought first sets within a span of about five minutes at #1, 2 and 5 singles. All three of those courts then raced to leads in their seconds sets as well, starting to open a path to the title for us! First to get across in singles was #5 singles (Hentschel) who continued his impressive display of tennis in big moments moving our squad to two points away from the match. Next up, after weathering a comeback bid and having a couple of earlier match points, #1 singles (Laber) served out his match in impressive style to secure a straight set win inching us to one match away from the title. Demonstrating his ability to track and make his opponents cover every inch of the court, #2 singles (Julian Wu) clinched the conference title for the Panther squad outlasting his opponent in some epic rallies to earn a 4-1 NESCAC Championship Final! What a special and well-earned moment for our team! Us coaches could not be more thrilled for our players!
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Juju secured the title clinch! |
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These seniors do it again, third time in four years! |
NCAA Regional Rounds Up Next
For the NCAA regional rounds, we will travel as the highest seed in our region with play hosted at Johns Hopkins University. Our round of 32 match match will be on Saturday, May 10th! Amped Up!
Go Midd!