On Saturday, April 11, the #12 Middlebury women’s tennis team took care of business at home, sweeping Trinity 7-0 inside an empty Nelson Recreation Center. The win was Middlebury\u2019s 13th against Trinity. With the victory, the Panthers remain undefeated against the Bantams. Saturday\u2019s result also came on the heels of a confidence-boosting sweep of #13 Williams last week. The Panthers currently sit third in the NESCAC with a record of 9\u20134 (5\u20131 against conference opponents) and look poised to make a deep postseason run.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Action opened in the doubles matches. In the top spot, Elsie Van Wieren \u201928 and Anna Lardner \u201926 secured the Panthers\u2019 first point with a 6-2 win. Captain Lulu Wu \u201926 and Ananya Annapantula \u201927 cruised to a 6-1 win in the second spot. First years Ren Barton \u201929 and Diya Pachamuthu \u201929 won the closest set of the afternoon 6-4, completing the Panthers\u2019 sweep in the doubles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then came the singles: on the Nelson Recreation Center\u2019s four courts, the Panthers quickly put their opponents away. Van Wieren won in straight sets in the top spot, conceding a single game, and Lardner gave no quarter in the second, beating her opponent 6-0, 6-0. Charlotte McCann \u201926 prevailed 6-2, 6-1 in the third slot, sealing the Middlebury victory. In the fourth slot, Elizabeth Doak \u201928 conceded just two games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rested from their doubles bouts, Pachamuthu and Annapantula retook the court in the fifth and sixth spots. The victory secured, the rest of the team cheered on Pachamuthu and Annapantula as they completed the Panthers\u2019 sweep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always great to be home in Nelson,\u201d Wu said, reflecting on the team\u2019s energy. \u201cWe hope everyone keeps fighting even if matches aren’t that close \u2014 it makes us want to play our best and perform the best that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Panthers\u2019 commanding victory over Trinity on Saturday provided an opportunity for the team to work on their game as the postseason approaches. \u201cThese matches are really helpful for us to work on the things that we need to work on,\u201d head coach Olivia Leavitt said. \u201cAll of us were working on our long-term process as opposed to short-term results, and we can always improve on that,\u201d Doak said.<\/p>\n
The Panthers 4\u20133 record against non-conference opponents reflects the strength of their schedule. Middlebury has earned two victories against the current eighth-ranked Pomona-Pitzer this season, but also lost a close contest against #4 University of Chicago. The Panthers also dropped their matchups against top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and second-ranked Washington University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve been really tested by some of the best teams in the country, which has been really helpful for us to see where we’re at and where we need to get better \u2014 I think we’re right there with a lot of the other top programs in the country,\u201d Leavitt said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Panthers followed up on their dominant win with a 5-2 victory against Tufts the next day. The team returns home for back-to-back NESCAC competitions this weekend, facing Amherst on Saturday and Hamilton \u2014 their senior-day matchup \u2014 on Sunday. The matches provide the team with a chance to tighten the screws as they approach postseason competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, if we keep building with each match we play, each week of practice, then we should be playing our best tennis when it comes to May,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n
Thie Harthono<\/p>\n
Thie Harthono ’28 (he\/him) is a Sports Editor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thie is majoring in Political Science. On campus, he serves as a Peer Writing Tutor. He spent the summer as a Press Intern at the United States Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday, April 11, the #12 Middlebury women’s tennis team took care of business at home, sweeping Trinity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-607765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}