As we headed toward the end of our regular season and into postseason play, we sought to rise through the finish line… an annual trademark of Midd Tennis! Senior and alumni weekend was a huge hit as we returned an amazing crew of alumni to campus, as well as brought in many family members to help us celebrate our seniors in style! On the courts, we despite two close losses we demonstrated some excellent improvements and showed that we had grown through the year! Unfortunately, the NCAA did not see fit to give us an at large bid with only two conference teams earning entry to the event. Without a doubt, we will use this as clear and strong motivation and fire to improve and already cannot wait to hit the ground running next year as a team. This year, we have senior captain Julian Wu leading the charge for us at NCAA individuals which will take place starting May 23rd at the Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, TN! Below are the highlights from our final four dual matches and some photos of our alumni and senior celebrations!
Colby (Midd wins 7-0)
Heading into this match on senior day, due to injury and some needed tweaking, we changed all three of our doubles pairs and this resulted in an impressive sweep in front of an electric alumni and fans crowd at our home courts! The boys carried this momentum into singles play and won all six singles positions in straight sets against a talented team which was no easy task! This was a great team performance and a fun way to lead into our senior celebration dinner later that evening.
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| Thehan and Reif hitting their stride at #1 doubles. |
Photos from Senior Celebration and Alumni Weekend
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| The alumni trolling Coach Thomson making shirts with an old roster photo from 2010! |
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| A beautiful night to celebrate wonderful careers for Juju, Hugh, and Nate! |
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| Hearing from the seniors always a highlight on senior night! |
Bowdoin (Midd loses 3-4)
Next up was a fun challenge taking on Bowdoin. We came out swinging out of the gates and again swept all three doubles matches to clinch the doubles point including winning a 7-6 (8) tiebreaker at the number one doubles spot. Heading into singles play, Bowdoin took some moment, but we fought tooth and nail and unfortunately came up just short. We ended up winning both at #1 singles (Julian Wu) in straight sets and at #6 singles (Andy Yim) in a third set super tiebreaker.
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| Andy Yim lining one up! |
Wesleyan (Midd wins 4-3)
Gearing up for a postseason run is always a fun and motivating time and we knew we would have to bring our best tennis from the beginning of the tournament facing a tough Wesleyan team on their home courts in the opening round. We came out on the wrong end of a very hard fought doubles point winning at #3 doubles but then dropping 7-5 and 7-6 sets at the other two spots. Knowing we would have to lock in, our squad did just that. We secured three straight set victories (Thehan, Hugh, and Andy) to set up one of our senior leaders Julian Wu to do his thing. Staying cool and collected, he kept applying pressure to his opponent steadily until he secured a 7-5, 7-6 victory sending us to the semifinals to rematch Bowdoin who we played just six days earlier. Check out a quick video of the clinch.
Excited and ready to take on Bowdoin after a close loss to them less than a week ago, we came out with our hair on fire and determined to flip the script. We won the doubles point again, with excellent performances at the top two doubles flights and then went out for 4 courts of singles play as the match had been pushed indoors due to weather. We then took a great next step with Andy Yim playing a stretch of nearly flawless tennis on route to a straight set win pushing our lead to 2-0. On the other three initial courts, we found ourselves in a third set on all of them! Unfortunately, we were not able to close the door on these matches and lost all three hard fought battles which allowed Bowdoin to regain the momentum and eventually the match. This turned out to be our final dual match of the season as we likely just missed out on an at-large berth for NCAAs. The disappointment stung, but we already have been using that motivation to fuel us for the future!
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| Fun seeing these two take the court together closing down their senior year! |
Upcoming: NCAA Individuals
Although our team run has come to a end, Julian Wu earned a selection to NCAA individuals which will begin on Sat, May 23 in Chattanooga, TN! We are training hard and excited to watch him shine after a fantastic season for him at our top spot all year long. In the latest national rankings, Juju is coming in at #10 in the nation and Thehan/Reif earned some respect currently at #22 in the nation in doubles! You can follow Juju in TN by keeping an eye on our schedule/results page as the time gets closer!
Go Midd!
- Middlebury Tennis Coaching Staff
