Williams Continues Undefeated Season with 5-4 Win Over Middlebury

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – The #2 Ephs battled to a 5-4 win over #5 Middlebury to start conference play on Saturday, splitting singles matches while going 2-1 in doubles. It was the first of three home matches the Ephs will play during the spring season. With the win, the Ephs advanced to 10-0 on the year and 9-0 in the spring. Middlebury, ranked #3 regionally, dropped to 7-2, their only other loss coming against Claremont Mudd Scripps on March 30^th. The Ephs had beaten Claremont-M-S by a score of 5-4 on March 24^th.

"Today was about celebrating the seniors at home," said Ephs head coach Anik Cepeda. "We got to do that against one of the toughest teams in the NESCAC."

Chloe Henderson '20 and Rachel Cross '21 started off strong for Williams, defeating Middlebury's Catherine Blazye and Maddi Stow, both sophomores. Seniors Juli Raventos and Julia Cancio followed with an 8-4 victory to put Middlebury in a 2-0 hole. The Panthers bounced back, however, as Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio '18 and Emily Zheng '20 fell to Heather Boehm and Christina Puccinelli 9-7.

Middlebury was able to even the score as play shifted to singles matches with Blayze overcoming Henderson 6-2, 6-0. Then, the Ephs bounced back with two wins in a row from Cross and Raventos to stretch the lead to 4-2 on the day. Boehm earned her second win of the day, this one over junior Leah Bush, before Mia Gancayco clinched the fifth win of the day for the Ephs by a score of 6-1, 6-3 over Middlebury's Skylar Schossberger.

"Shout out to Mia," commented Cepeda, "It was fun to watch her stay composed from start to finish."

In the final singles match of the day, Cancio fell to Stow 7-5, 6-4.

"Our aggression was on full display in doubles and in just the right number of singles matches today," Cepeda concluded. "We're eager to host Wesleyan tomorrow!"

Williams will continue conference matchups tomorrow when they face Wesleyan at home, beginning at 2:30 PM EDT.       

Complete Results: