MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — After being ousted in their NESCAC title defense in the semifinals in 2014, the Ephs found themselves in the NESCAC finals once again for the second time in three years. The Ephs were seeking to extend their conference-leading number of NESCAC Championships to 16, their last one coming in 2013 when they defeated Amherst 5-4. Meanwhile, their opponents, Middlebury, were in search of their seventh overall NESCAC title and their first in five years, their last one coming in 2010 against the Ephs on what was a thorough 6-0 performance. The Ephs were hoping to rewrite history and put that 6-0 loss from the 2010 finals, as well as their 8-1 rout during the regular season, behind them.
Coming off a pair of strong wins over the previous two days, the Ephs were confident going into Sunday, but their hopes were dashed early, as Middlebury came out firing on all cylinders to take a 3-0 lead after doubles, before quickly grabbing a fourth point in singles. The Ephs managed to cut their deficit in half, but Panther junior Palmer Campbell was able to eek out a narrow 7-4 first-set tiebreaker win that he then followed up with a more straightforward 6-3 second set to seal the title on home soil for the Panthers, 5-2.
Eph head coach Dan Greenberg had only praise for Middlebury's title-winning performance: "Congrats to Middlebury. They really came out strong to take the 3-0 lead, but I'm proud of how hard our guys fought to claw back into the match."
In spite of dropping all three courts in doubles, a repeat occurrence from their contest during regular season, the Ephs did not roll over easily for the Panthers to stroll to victory.
After junior Panther Jackson Frons captured the Panthers' fourth point of the morning at four-singles, outplaying first-year Eph Brian Grodecki 6-1, 6-4, the Ephs dug in for a hard fight, and fight they did.
Sophomore Rohan Shastri grinded out a tough first set at two-singles, 7-5, against freshman Noah Farrell, and then finally was able to deal the fatal blow at 5-4 in the second, posting the Ephs' first point of the day.
Freshman Sachin Raghavan followed his compatriot's example a short time later, as he battled out a back-and-forth affair with fellow freshman William de Quant, winning the first set, 6-3, but then dropping the second far too easily, 6-1. However, Raghavan made up for his second-set lapse in his third-set performance, turning the tables on de Quant and dispatching him with relative ease, 6-2.
The Ephs had cut the deficit in half and were still battling on all three remaining courts, as junior Jose Raventos was in a deciding set with his junior counterpart Ari Smolyar after trading 6-2 and then 6-3 sets. Meanwhile, junior Howard Weiss was toughing out a grueling match on court 6 against freshman Panther Kyle Schlanger, only just falling short in the first-set tiebreaker 7-2 and still battling deep in a second set.
At the end of the day, however, the Panthers were able to finish the Ephs off, as Campbell hauled the Panthers over the finish line with a decisive victory at three-singles.
"We dug ourselves into and out of a huge deficit and made it a great match, so other than today's doubles, I couldn't have asked for more this weekend," reflected Greenberg on the weekend as a whole.
The Ephs are left waiting to know if their impressive NESCAC tournament efforts will be too little too late for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. The announcement for the team competition will be made by noon on Monday, while the participants of the individual tournament will be revealed by no later than 7 PM EDT Monday night. The announcement tomorrow will be made on the NCAA Tournament website.
Middlebury 5, Williams 2
1. Smolyar, Ari (MIDDLEBURY) vs. Raventos, Jose (WILLIAMS) 2-6, 6-3, 3-2 DNF
2. Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) def. Farrell, Noah (MIDDLEBURY) 7-5, 6-4
3. Campbell, Palmer (MIDDLEBURY) def. Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 7-6(4), 6-3
4. Frons, Jackson (MIDDLEBURY) def. Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 6-1, 6-4
5. Raghavan, Sachin (WILLIAMS) def. de Quant, William (MIDDLEBURY) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
6. Schlanger, Kyle (MIDDLEBURY) vs. Weiss, Howard (WILLIAMS) 7-6(2), 6-5 DNF
1. Campbell, Palmer/Heidrich, Peter (MIDDLEBURY) def. Astrachan, Brian/Schidlovsky, Alexander (WILLIAMS) 8-6
2. Smolyar, Ari/Farrell, Noah (MIDDLEBURY) def. Raventos, Jose/Shastri, Rohan (WILLIAMS) 8-4
3. Frost, Chris/de Quant, William (MIDDLEBURY) def. Raghavan, Sachin/Grodecki, Brian (WILLIAMS) 8-5
Match Notes:
Williams 12-10, nationally ranked #16, regionally ranked #4
Middlebury 18-3, nationally ranked #3, regionally ranked #2
