We send this update today filled with pride for celebrating our senior class of 2021 and the wonderful impact they have left on our program. We are also turning our focus toward ensuring our program utilizes the summer months well, especially as all signs point to a full return to normal modes of competition starting in the fall! Having been unable to compete as a team across the past two spring semesters has certainly served to sharpen our appetite and we already cannot wait!
Celebrating the Class of 2021
What an incredible group of young men! Adam, Nate, and Thorne officially graduated on Saturday, and it has been our pleasure as a coaching staff to work with each of these incredible student-athletes. Each of them will graduate with academic honors and has consistently put in excellent work in the classroom. On the tennis court, their accomplishments have been steady and strong as well. In their freshmen year, they immediately brought a sense of youth and talent to our group that rounded out an experienced group and their efforts helped push us to win the NCAA title. What a great way to kick off a career! As sophomores, they won the NESCAC title and made a run to the NCAA final four, enjoying the thrills that come with positioning ourselves deep in the postseason. Due to the pandemic that has influenced all of us in so many ways, it turned out these would be the final two spring seasons for this group. Despite the frustrations and uncertainty prompted by the pandemic, our senior group has not complained, made the most of difficult situations, and found a way to assert themselves as strong leaders of our program when it was needed most!
Adam, Nate, and Thorne are all incredibly likable young men who earned the respect of their teammates and coaches by bring a sense of positivity and joy day in and day out. Each of them has always been willing to take on tasks for the betterment of the team and put the team needs above their own. We are going to miss watching their tennis skills on a daily basis as well from Thorne closing the net like a monster in 2-up 2-back drills, Nate’s always reliable cross-court forehand angles and passing shots, and the incredible power and technically perfect swing of Adam’s aptly named fearhand! However, their impact on our program will be sustained for years to come and we cannot wait to keep these three involved as newly minted alumni. The way our three senior captains help to keep everyone connected, even when we were not together on campus this spring was truly special. It is clear our group maintained one of the most important ingredients of Middlebury Tennis – creating a team culture that produces lifelong bonds and friendships! Congratulations again to Adam, Nate, and Thorne - we are beyond thrilled to see what these three will accomplish in their post-Middlebury careers!
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| The "fearhand" in action! Few players have a skill as special as Guo's '21 forehand. |
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| Eazor '21 probably whizzing a crosscourt angle passing shot by a helpless volleyer - too Eazy. |
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| Gregory '21 pictured on the right with Sutton '19 were one of the most storied 2up 2back combos in program history with Gregory '21 always fearless at net. Team nickname of Corne (Cole + Thorne). |
Recap of Spring 2021
To provide a brief recap, it was a particularly unique spring semester where we had one player on campus and twelve players studying remotely and training and playing off-campus. Given the circumstances, we were impressed by our group’s sustained commitment and accomplishments. We were able to schedule three scrimmage matches for Zihao Yuan ’24 who was our only player on campus against NESCAC opponents toward the end of the semester and he also played a few fun “challenge” matches where he competed against Coach Thomson (youth prevailed in these matchups!). Our off-campus players trained consistently throughout the semester, meeting weekly on Zoom as a team, dialing in their own practices and fitness, and competing in many UTR events to get some great competition in as well. The Panthers won multiple doubles titles during the semester which was a highlight for us coaches to follow along with! Not all college and universities had the same approach to athletics during the pandemic this semester (some DIII schools were able to compete in postseason play), and it is serving to build extra fuel and fire for us to hit it hard next year!
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| Mairs '24 and Ward '24 after teaming up to win a doubles tournament in SoCal. |
Middlebury Tennis Plans for Summer 2021
Now that we enter the summer, we are thrilled that many activities will be returning to more pre-pandemic normal status. Recruiting is being allowed at more and more events for us coaches and we look forward to traveling to some of our mainstay tournaments and showcases throughout the summer. We also anticipate the college will begin to allow some visitors on campus, and it will be wonderful to be able to welcome prospective players on campus and show off what a “hidden” gem Middlebury College is in person instead of through video calls and virtual tours! We will also be using the summer to dial in plans for our typical competitive events in the fall, including our annual Middlebury Invitational tournament which we currently have penciled in for the week of September 18th! Thrilling to start pointing toward our first fall tournament, which helps give each day the extra spark of motivation for getting after it on the courts!
Thank you so much to everyone in our Middlebury Family and we truly appreciate having so many incredibly supportive and patient people encouraging us as the Panthers await our return to typical competition! As always, we love hearing from you and hope to see many of you back on campus to watch some tennis as soon as we are cleared to host fans again (or watching us ball out on the livestream)!
Very best wishes,
The Middlebury Men’s Tennis Coaching Staff
