In a battle of top-10 ranked men's tennis teams, third-ranked Middlebury scored the first four points to finish in singles play on its way to a 6-3 victory Tuesday over #8 Pomona-Pitzer at the Pauley Tennis Complex. Following a day off from competition, the Panthers (7-0) look to keep their winning ways going Thursday at 4:00 p.m. against Division II UC Riverside.

Against the Sagehens (9-7), the Panther #1 tandem of Ari Smolyar and Noah Farrell put the visitors ahead with an 8-1 win over Graham Maassen and Spencer Simonides. The third flight Middlebury duo of William de Quant and Timo van der Geest doubled the Panther lead with an 8-6 victory against Josh Kim and Kalyan Chadalavada.

Pomona-Pitzer's lone point in doubles came in the second spot when Jonathan Kim and Jake Yasgoor had to go to a tiebreaker to edge Palmer Campbell and Hamid Derbani 9-8 (5).

In singles action, the Panthers raced out and claimed the first four matches to come to a decision for the team victory. Derbani was the first to finish with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Simonides at #5, while de Quant gave the Panthers a 4-1 advantage with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 triumph against Sam Malech in the fourth slot.

In a match featuring two top-25 nationally-ranked singles players, 24th-ranked Smolyar clinched the team victory for the visitors in the #2 spot with a 6-3, 6-4 win against #22 Turnquist. Farrell, the nation's top-ranked individual in Division III, picked up a win at #1 by 7-6 (1), 6-1 scores against Maassen.

The Sagehens scored their second and third points in the last two matches of the night as both needed to a super tiebreaker to decide a victor. Pomona-Pitzer's Josh Gearou edged van der Geest by scores of 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 at #6, while Jonathan Kim slipped past Campbell (5-7, 7-6 (5), 10-7).