The Middlebury men's tennis team battled top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps to the end during the NCAA Tournament Semifinals, eventually falling by a 5-2 score to the Stags. The match was played outdoors at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center in Claremont, California. The Panthers (21-4) will take on #8 Trinity (Texas) in the third-place match at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday. The Tigers (25-7) were tripped up by #4 Amherst by a 5-3 tally in the other national semifinal. 

CMS, hosts of the tournament, jumped out to an early 2-1 lead during doubles action. Joe Dorn and Warren Wood secured the first point for the Stags with an 8-5 victory against Middlebury's Alex Johnston and Andrew Lebovitz. At #2, the Panther tandem of Brantner Jones and Palmer Campbell squared off with Skyler Butts and Neel Kotrappa. The pairs battled back and forth, before Jones and Campbell grabbed an 8-7 lead, eventually holding serve for the 9-7 triumph.

Moments later in the third flight with the match knotted at 1-1, the Stags' Nik Marino and Zhenya Pereverzin possessed a narrow 8-7 lead against Middlebury's Ari Smolyar and Peter Heidrich. The CMS partners held serve, gaining a key point by a 9-7 count.

In singles, Johnston evened the match at 2-2 with a straight-set 6-3, 6-4 win against Wood. However, CMS recorded three-straight singles' victories for the win. Marino edged Campbell in the match at #3 via 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 set scores. At #4, Butts tallied the Stags' fourth point, battling back from a set down for a 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 triumph. Pereverzin secured the team's fifth point and the match for the Stags with a marathon 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) victory at #6 against Middlebury's Jackson Frons.

In the pair of singles matches that went unfinished, Jones and Dorn each won a set at #2 with Dorn ahead by a 4-3 score in the third. In the fifth flight, CMS' Daniel Morkovine and Middlebury's Courtney Mountifield each won a set with Mountifield ahead in the final set, 3-0.