Middlebury advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals with a 5-0 victory over Skidmore in a match played indoors on the Nelson Recreational Center Courts at Middlebury College. The third-ranked Panthers (18-2) will play Washington-St. Louis on Monday, May 23 at the Stowe Tennis Center in Kalamazoo, Michigan, while 20th-ranked Skidmore finishes its season at 15-5. The Panthers advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the 13th time in the last 14 years.
Middlebury swept all three doubles matches, grabbing a 3-0 lead. The Panther duo of William de Quant and Kyle Schlanger picked up the first point at #3 with an 8-4 win over Skidmore's Lucas Pickering and Steven Koulouris. Middlebury's Ari Smolyar and Noah Farrell doubled the hosts' advantage minutes later with an 8-2 victory in the second flight over Jonah Epstein and Kit Sanderson.
In the closest match, Middlebury's top tandem of Palmer Campbell and Hamid Derbani held a 7-4 lead over Skidmore's Kai Yuen Leung, but the Thoroughbred pair won the next three games to tie it at 7-7. The two sides traded service games to make it 8-8, sending it to a tiebreaker. Campbell and Derbani completed the sweep with a 7-2 victory.
In the singles matches, Middlebury picked up their fourth point with a 6-3, 6-0 win at #4 from de Quant over Pickering. Farrell clinched the match with his 30th win in singles this season, defeating Lueng in the top spot by scores of 6-2, 6-4.
Three of the four remaining matches went unfinished. Smolyar grabbed the opening set by a 6-2 score but trailed 5-4 in the second set at #2 against Koulouris, while Campbell was up by a set (6-3) and was down 4-3 against Sanderson at the #3 spot. Derbani led 3-2 at #5 in the first set against Tong, while Schlanger and Berkowitz at #6 didn't take to the court.