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| Boris Sorkin earned victories at both No. 3 doubles and No. 3 singles |
MEDFORD - The #15 Tufts University men's tennis team fell to third-ranked Middlebury College on Sunday afternoon, 6-3. The match opened NESCAC play for the Jumbos, and was played inside at the Gantcher Center.
Panthers pair Noah Farrell and William de Quant opened the scoring, defeating Carl-Herman Grant and Nathan Niemiec 8-1 in the No. 2 doubles match. Lubomir Cuba and Kyle Schlanger followed that up with an 8-6 win over Jumbos Zain Ali and Rohan Gupte at No. 1.
The Jumbos answered at No. 3 doubles, as Ethan Bershtein and Boris Sorkin earned an 8-6 victory of their own over Timo van der Geest and Peter Martin.
Schlanger, #15 in ITA rankings, kept rolling for Middlebury at No. 4 singles, defeating Grant 6-1, 6-2. Cuba (#9) took down Gupte (#34) 6-4, 7-5 in a tight matchup of ranked players at No. 1.
Down 4-1, Tufts responded with two huge victories in the No. 2 & 3 matches. Ali avenged an earlier doubles loss by defeating #24 Farrell 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2, while Sorkin similarly bounced back to win against #13 de Quant 6-4, 6-3 at No. 3, putting the Jumbos at a 4-3 match deficit.
The Panthers took both the No. 5 and No. 6 matches in three sets to earn the 6-3 victory. Niemiec fell to Nate Eazor 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 in the #5 contest, while Middlebury's Andre Xiao defeated Jumbos sophomore Ben Biswas in a back and forth match at No. 6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Tufts is back in action next weekend, when they will travel to Connecticut to square off with NESCAC opponent Wesleyan (Conn.). The Panthers return home to face Bowdoin on April 14.
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