WILLIAMSTOWN, MA. – Although the 8-1
final score might indicate otherwise, Williams men's tennis
battled in a difficult loss to #1 Middlebury (16-2, 8-0) in their
final regular season contest. Despite falling into an early
3-0 hole after doubles play, the Ephs brought some of their best
doubles tennis to their toughest match up of the year.
“It was really tough to go down 3-0 in doubles,”
said Williams head coach Dan Greenberg. “That is always
a bad situation, but none of the matches were blowouts and the
whole entire doubles play took an hour and a half. It would
have been nice to get number three doubles though.”
Nick Lebedoff and Kevin Shallcross dropped their match first at
court one in an 8-3 loss, while Dicken Chaplin and Bryan Chow could
not overcome their Middlebury opponents in an 8-4 loss at court
one.
At court three, Felix Sun and Trey Meyer had won nine straight
matches coming into this afternoon. The match was a back and
forth affair early on and on serve at 7-8, the freshman pair went
down three match points but battled back to deuce with three
well-fought points. Williams would lose the next two points
though, and Sun and Meyer suffered their first defeat as a pair.
“Even going down 3-0 in doubles, everyone fought really
well in their singles matches. Nobody played as if we
didn't have a chance,” said Greenberg.
Although the final doubles tally was disappointing, the Ephs
moved on to singles play. Meyer was the only Eph to tally a
win, defeating his opponent at court six by a 6-2, 6-3 score.
Felix Sun moved up to court one, and despite being ill for the past
few days, he dueled with Andrew Peters of Middlebury. After
going up an early break, Sun lost the first set. He came back
to take the second, but lost in a third set breaker, 10-4.
Zach Weiss also battled with some sickness during his match as
well, but fell at court five, 6-4, 6-4. Lebedoff, Weinberger,
and Chow also fell in straight sets at courts two, three, and four,
respectively.
Williams will brush off the loss as they look to postseason
play. The Ephs will play in the first round of the NESCAC
tournament on Friday.
Middlebury 8, Williams 1
Doubles:
1) Andrew Lee/Andrew Thomson (M) def. Dicken
Chaplin/Bryan Chow (W) --- 8-4
2) Eliot Jia/Conrad Olsen (M) def. Nick
Lebedoff/Kevin Shallcross (W) --- 8-3
3) Chris Mason/Andrew Peters (M) def. Felix Sun/Trey
Meyer --- 9-7
Singles:
1) Peters (M) def. Sun (W) --- 6-4, 3-6, 10-4
2) Lee (M) def. Lebedoff (W) --- 6-2, 6-3
3) Thomson (M) def. Weinberger (W) --- 6-2, 6-2
4) Peter Odell (M) def. Chow (W) --- 6-3, 7-5
5) Jia (M) def. Zach Weiss (W) --- 6-4, 6-4
6) Meyer (W) def. Derrick Angle (M) --- 6-2, 6-3
