WILLIAMSTOWN, MA (April 29, 2023) -- No. 4 ranked Middlebury College handed the No. 2 Tufts University men's tennis team its first loss of the 2023 campaign on Saturday afternoon, as the Jumbos fell to the Panthers 5-2 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) semifinals Saturday afternoon at Williams College. The match was a rematch of the 2022 NESCAC Championship.
The match was moved indoors to Lansing Arena due to rain and the Panthers (14-3) took advantage as Aidan Harris and Noah Laber knocked off
Derin Acaroglu and
Vuk Vuksanovic 8-3 at No. 1 doubles to start the scoring. Tufts rallied to deadlock the match at No. 2 doubles, as
Rishabh Sharda and
Josh Belandres picked up their 16th victory together with an 8-7 win. The No. 3 match would decide which squad would take the edge in singles, and the Panthers were able to eke out a win, as Joe Mairs and Julian Wu bested
Jack Moldenhauer and
Alex Ganchev in a tiebreak, 8-7.
Zihao Yuan was able to put the Panthers up 3-1 at No. 6 singles, knocking off Belandres 6-2, 6-1. Laber secured the fourth point for the Panthers with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Sharda to make the score 4-1, but Ganchev kept the Jumbos alive with a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 3 to make it 4-2.
The advancing point came at No. 5 for Middlebury, as
Javier Gonzalez was defeated 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 by Robby Ward to send the Panthers to Sunday's title match. Vuksanovic was leading his match at No. 2 when the match was called, while Acaroglu and Wu also saw their play abandoned with the first set tied at four games apiece.
Middlebury will take on either Bowdoin College or Williams College in the NESCAC title match at 1 p.m. in Williamstown.
The Jumbos (20-1) will now look forward to the NCAA Tournament Selection Show this Monday, May 1 at 12:30 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.
--JUMBOS--
