MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - In a spring season-opening match between top 10 NESCAC teams, the host and 10th-ranked Middlebury College Panthers earned a 6-3 win over #6 Tufts University in a on Saturday.
Middlebury took an advantage in doubles with wins in two out of three matches. The #1 pair won first as Amy Delman and Gena Huang defeated Tufts' Tilly Rigby and Elle Christensen 8-3. The host Panthers went up 2-0 when Nathalie van der Reis and Sahana Raman completed a #3 doubles victory over Zoe Kava and Caroline Garrido 8-4. The third doubles match was a great contest between Jumbos Maggie Dorr and Madeline Suk against Panthers Brinlea La Barge and Sami Remis. Tufts had an early lead, but Middlebury got back in it before the Jumbo duo won in a tie-breaker 8-7 (7-5) to avoid a doubles sweep.
To start singles, Christensen (pictured) had a strong 6-4, 6-4 win over Raman in the #1 match to tie the team score at 2-2. Raman is ranked #2 nationally in singles after the fall season and Christensen was #24. In fourth singles, LaBarge overcame a first-set loss to win over Suk 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, then van der Reis won 6-3, 7-5 against Tufts' Kristin Shiuey in the #6 match and the Panthers led 4-2. They clinched the victory when Huang came from behind to win #2 singles over Kava 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the final two matches to finish, Delman added a 6-4, 6-4 win over Frankel on the third singles court, and the fifth singles match went to Tufts' Casey Cummings 4-6, 6-4, 10-3 against Middlebury's Remis.
Head coach Kate Bayard's Jumbos continue their season-opening road trip with a Sunday match at Williams College beginning at 10 am.
