MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The 10th-ranked men's tennis team played a competitive match against second-ranked Middlebury, forcing the Panthers to four tiebreakers, but the home team prevailed with a 6-3 victory. The Judges fall to 7-2 with the loss, while Middlebury improves to 3-0.
In three extremely competitive doubles matches, the home-court advantage proved to be the edge. Middlebury's Lubomir Cuba and Nate Eazor edged David Aizenberg (Highland Park, Ill./Highland Park) and Anupreeth Coramutla (Monroe Township, N.J./Phillips Andover), 8-6, in a battle of two of the top doubles teams in the region. #2 and #3 matches were even closer, both coming down to tiebreakers won by the home team. Aleksandr Samets and Andre Xiao edged Brandeis's Colt Tegtmeier (Madison, Wisc. / James Madison Memorial) and Tyler Ng (Great Neck, N.Y./Great Neck South) 8-7 (7-3) at #3, while Peter Martin and Alex Vanezis bested Jeffrey Chen (Northfield, Ill./New Trier) and Adam Tzeng (Eagle, Idaho/Eagle), 8-7 (7-5), at #2 to complete the sweep.
In singles action, the Panthers got on the board quickly, with Adam Guo defeating Nikhil Das (Smithfield, R.I./Moses Brown School), 6-1, 6-2, at #4. Coramutla finally got the Judges on the board at #2 with a 7-5, 6-3, win at #2 over Stanley Morris. Middlebury was able to clinch the win at #1 despite a valiant attempts by Aizenberg against Cuba, who prevailed, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5).
Judge rookie Adam Tzeng won the only three-set match of the day at #3, defeating Andre Xiao, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (7-3). His doubles partner, Jeffrey Chen, also won at #5, 6-3, 6-0, over Eazor. Middlebury picked up the last point of the match at #6, with Alex Vanezis defeating Rajan Vohra (Glen Head, N.Y./North Shore), 6-3, 6-3.
The Judges are back in action on Sunday afternoon against Colby at 2 p.m.