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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Something had to give.
Two teams ranked in the top ten nationally, both riding win
streaks, met on a warm spring day and finished up indoors when
darkness intervened. Williams senior co-captain Dan Greenberg
won a three-set match at number one singles to clinch a 5-4
Williams win over Middlebury. The match took five hours to
complete. "Give Middlebury a lot of credit, this was a really tough
match," said Eph head coach Dave Donn. "They pushed us to the
limit."
When darkness forced the match indoors Williams led 4-3 with both
number one and number two singles tied at one set each. When
Middlebury's Filip Marinkovic defeated the Ephs' Nick Lebedoff 5-7,
6-3, 6-2 the match came down to the result at one singles.
The Panthers' Andrew Lee won the first set from Greenberg 6-2, but
the Eph senior responded with a 6-4 win in the second set and
closed out the match with a 6-3 win in the third set. "Dan
Greenberg has been huge for us all year," stated Donn. "He really
stepped it up and showed his senior leadership today. I thought he
played his best tennis under pressure."
The Eph win streak was extended to five and Middlebury's
five-match streak was ended. Williams, ranked 4th nationally is now
10-1 overall and 2-0 in NESCAC, while Middlebury, ranked 9th is
10-4 overall and 4-1 in NESCAC.
"This is a huge win for our program over a good Middlebury program
that has had a lot of success against us recently," said Donn. "To
get over the hump is a big boost to the guys' confidence and a big
step for moving forward."
The win was the first for Williams over Middelbury since April 2,
2002, when the Ephs won in Williamstown 6-1.
The Ephs will next play on Saturday at 2:00 pm when they host
Little Three and NESCAC rival Wesleyan.
Williams 5, Middlebury 4
Doubles:
1) Dan Greenberg/Bret Thacher (W) def. Andrew
Lee/Chris Mason (M) – 8-5
2) Gary Simonette/Nick Lebedoff (W) def. Andrew
Peters/Michael Malhame (M) – 8-5
3) Filip Marinkovic/Rich Bonfiglio (M) def.
Karol Furmaga/Rick Devlin (W) – 8-2
Singles:
1) Greenberg (W) def. Lee (M) --
2-6, 6-4, 6-3
2) Marinkovic (M) def. Lebedoff (W) – 5-7,
6-3, 6-2
3) Peters (M) def. Simonette (W) – 7-5,
6-2
4) Jeremy Weinberger (W) def. Bonfiglio (M)
– 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
5) Peter Odell (M) def. Furmaga (W) – 6-2,
6-2
6) Devlin (W) def. Mason (M) – 6-1, 6-2
