MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury College men’s tennis team won two home matches on Saturday, defeating No. 12 Bowdoin (9-6, 4-2 NESCAC) by a score of 7-2, and then pinning a 6-3 loss on RPI (10-4). The wins pushed the Panthers’ winning streak to seven and their record to 14-2, 5-0 NESCAC.
Middlebury, ranked No. 8 in last week’s NCAA Division III poll, took two of three doubles matches to grab an early lead against Bowdoin.
At No. 2 in the Bowdoin match, Brantner Jones and Palmer Campbell scored an 8-3 victory over Noah Bragg and Kyle Wolstencroft. The Polar Bears secured their point at No. 1 as Sam King and Luke Trinka defeated Middlebury’s Alex Johnston and Andrew Lebovitz, 8-5. The hosts secured a 2-1 advantage headed to singles with a 9-8 (8-6) win by Peter Heidrich and Ari Smolyar over Bowdoin’s Chris Lord and Chase Savage.
The Panthers won five of six singles matches. The Polar Bears earned their only singles win at No. 2, where Trinka, ranked sixth in the nation, defeated 18th-ranked Campbell, 6-3, 6-2. In the top flight, Johnston needed three sets to get by Bragg 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Jones defeated King at No. 3 (6-3, 6-2), while Smolyar defeated Lord, 7-5, 6-0, in the fourth spot. Courtney Mountifield picked up the win at No. 5 over Wolstencroft, 4-6, 6-3 (10-6), while Jackson Frons blanked Savage at No. 6 (6-0, 6-0).
Against RPI, the Panthers once again took a 2-1 lead into singles. Johnston and Lebovitz won, 8-4, over Jarrett Regier and Brandon Mazzara at No. 1, while Chris Frost and James Burke defeated RPI’s Graham Harris and Sherman Uyeno at No. 3, 8-5. At No. 2, RPI grabbed its doubles point with a 9-8 (9-7) win from Matt LaBarre and McKinley Grimes over Jones and Campbell.
In singles, Johnston fell to LaBarre at No. 1, 6-2, 5-7 (10-7). Campbell cruised at No. 2 over Regier (6-4, 6-1), while Jones defeated Mazzara 6-2, 6-2. The visitors picked up a 6-3, 6-4 win in the fourth slot from Grimes over Zach Bruchmiller. However, Teddy Fitzgibbons won for the Panthers at No. 5 over Uyeno (6-0, 6-2) and Lebovitz defeated Anthony Kim 6-3, 6-0 at No. 6.