There is simply nothing like sharing a journey of a season as a part of Midd men’s tennis, through the ups, downs, and all the in between! We are sitting in the middle of a beautiful moment where we have had a many solid wins, some tough losses, and a consensus that the best is yet to come for this group! The daily excitement of figuring out how we can continue to grow in learn serves this group well, where we do not take ourselves too seriously and constantly aim to rise toward a future peak in our collective level! We provide this latest post to recap our past 6 matches and then highlight what is coming up next with only two more weekends of regular season play left!
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| Huddling! |
Tufts (Midd ousted 6-1)
In our first match back from spring break, we headed into indoor play in an away match in Boston. Credit to Tufts for playing well, despite hard fought battles across the board they came away victorious in most spots. The Panthers did secure a solid win at #2 singles (Wu) in straight sets, and despite the result we reminded ourselves that facing tough tests on the road will allow us to rise and become stronger as a result. You can see the full box score here.
Bates (Midd wins 6-1)
Bouncing right back after the Tufts match, we again had to play on a unique court surface on the road and we responded brilliantly! We secured solid victories at #1 (Laber/Wijemanne) and # 2 doubles (Epstein/Hentschel) to take the doubles point, and then immediately took that momentum into singles play where we found our way to 5 straight set victories! The full box score is here.
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| Panthers always sticking together! |
Bowdoin (Midd ousted 3-4)
Again taking a bus up to Maine for another weekend of road NESCAC matches, we came out battling and playing better even if not finding our best just yet. We pushed Bowdoin to the brink of earning the doubles point with #1 doubles (Laber/Wijemanne) winning 7-5 and coming up just short in the other two slots. We did not back down however and again pushed Bowdoin to the brink securing wins at #1 (Laber), #3 (Epstein) and #5 (Wijemanne) singles, and lost two three-set fights as well. It was a fun match to be a part of despite coming out on the wrong side of the result, but took comfort in knowing that this match will build our collective motivation and force as we continue to seek our best collective tennis. The full box score can be seen here.
Colby (Midd wins 5-2)
On the road, NESCAC opponent, and unique tennis surface… nothing new! Colby played us tough and we fought incredibly well to earn a gritty 5-2 win that began with excellent doubles play sweeping all 3 slots including a 13-11 tiebreak win at #1 doubles (Laber/Wijemanne). #2 doubles (Epstein/Hentschel) and #3 doubles (Lewis/Larsen) did not take near as long fortunately! In singles play we earned a come from behind win at #1 singles (Laber) and excellent straight set victories at #2 (Wu), #3 (Epstein), and #5 (Hentschel)! The full box score can be seen here.
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| With his singles and doubles wins over MIT, Neel reached a career milestone of 150 combined singles/doubles wins. |
Conn (Midd wins 7-0)
In this match, weather pushed us indoors in the morning and we came out firing on all cylinders and really showed the depth of our program as well. We swept doubles play including a 6-0 win by our freshmen at #3 doubles (Huet/Larsen). We carried momentum well throughout singles with both freshmen also earning straight set singles win along with our four non-freshmen singles players in this one! Full box score can be seen here.
MIT (Midd wins 4-3)
We knew coming into this match MIT was a particularly talented group that would test our skills. In what turned out to be our first match at our new outdoor facility, we came up big earning a hard-fought win. In doubles, we played some of our best tennis and won handily by scores of 6-2, 6-4 and 6-0 at #1 (Laber/Wijemanne), #2 (Epstein/Hentschel), and #3 (Larsen/Lewis) respectively. We knew that singles would nonetheless not come easily. At the bookends of the lineup, doubles partners Laber (#1 singles) won 6-1, 6-3 against a very strong opponent and Wijemanne (#6 singles) won 6-1, 6-1 to push us to one match away. Senior captain Neel Epstein (#3 singles) fully closed the door with a 7-6(1), 6-4 triumph to secure the win before MIT could get any closer. The full box score can be seen here.
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| Noah Laber stretching out for a backhand. |
Two More NESCAC Regular Season Weekends
Next up on our journey is an away match versus Williams on Saturday, April 20th followed by home matches versus Wesleyan and Trinity (CT) in our final regular season matches. Our full schedule can be seen here.
Go Midd!
