BRUNSWICK, Maine — In a showdown of perennial top-10 teams Saturday, the eighth-ranked Middlebury men’s tennis team posted a 5-4 victory at fourth-ranked Bowdoin (12-3, 4-2) in a rematch of last spring’s NCAA Championship contest. Middlebury (12-5 overall, 5-1 in the league) returns to action Saturday when it wraps up the regular season with a match at No. 7 Amherst.
Doubles play at Bowdoin featured three tight matches; the Panthers secured two points. After the Polar Bears picked up an 8-6 win at No. 3, the No. 1 duo of Lubomir Cuba and Peter Martin put the visitors on the scoreboard with an 8-7 (5) win over Grant Urken and Jerry Jiang. The second flight of Noah Farrell and Aleksandr Samets gave the visitors a 2-1 lead with an 8-7 (7) victory against Justin Wang and Evan Fortier.
In singles action, five of the six matches went to three sets. The Polar Bears tied the match at 2-2 with a straight-set win at No. 5. Nate Eazor regained the lead for the visitors with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 triumph at No. 6, but Bowdoin leveled the score at 3-3 with a win in the top position.
The Panthers took the lead for good when Adam Guo won 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 against Fortier at No. 4, while Farrell recorded a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Jiang to clinch the team’s fifth point and the match at No. 2.
The hosts were victorious at the No. 3 spot for the final 5-4 score.