The seventh-ranked Middlebury women's tennis team prevailed in a matchup of top-10 foes behind strong singles play for a 7-2 NESCAC home victory on Proctor Tennis Courts over #6 Bowdoin. The Panthers (8-3, 5-1) return to the court Sunday when they host a 1:30 p.m. match against Skidmore.

Middlebury jumped out to a 1-0 lead in doubles when Alexandra Fields and Christina Puccinelli posted an 8-0 victory at #3 over Pilar Giffenig and Maddie Rolph. The Panther tandem of Sadie Shackelford and Kaysee Orozco, who once trailed by a 7-3 score, doubled the lead for the hosts with a thrilling 9-7 victory at #2 over Tess Trinka and Kyra Silitich. At #1, the Polar Bear duo of Joulia Likhanskaia and Tiffany Cheng got the visitors on the board with an 8-6 triumph over Ria Gerger and Lily Bondy.

In singles, Bondy gave Middlebury a 3-1 lead with a 6-0, 6-1 victory against Rolph in the third flight, while Gerger pushed that advantage to three via a 6-3, 6-2 win in the top spot over Likhanskaia. Samantha Stadler secured the second team point for Bowdoin with 6-4, 6-4 win at #6 over Shackelford.

With the Panthers ahead by a 4-2 count, the three remaining matches all went to third sets with the Panthers winning all of them. Fields clinched the match for the hosts when she defeated Cheng at #2 (3-6, 6-3, 6-1). Puccinelli improved to 10-1 this spring when she edged Trinka in the fourth flight (6-4, 3-6, 6-1), while Molly Paradies closed the scoring and ran her record to 8-2 in dual matches with a victory over Silitich at #5 (6-7 (7), 6-3, 10-3).