Middlebury men's tennis players Palmer Campbell and Hamid Derbani advanced to the NCAA Championship match in doubles play before falling 7-6 (3), 6-1 to Sam Geier and Tristan Kaye of Kenyon in the title match. Earlier in the day, the Panther duo earned a straight-set victory against the top-seeded duo of CJ Krimbill and Louis Steurke of Case Western Reserve. Campbell and Derbani were just the second Middlebury men's doubles team and the first since 2006 to play in the final. Matches were contested at Kalamazoo's Stowe Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In the opening set of the semifinal against Krimbill and Steurke, Campbell and Derbani jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead against the top-seeded pair, cruising to a 6-1 victory. The second set saw the two tandems split the first six games, but Campbell and Derbani claimed the last three for the 6-1, 6-3 straight-set victory.
Campbell and Derbani were the second team from Middlebury to play in the final after Ari Beilin and Alex Scott advanced in 2006. During Saturday's championship match against Kenyon's Geier and Kaye, the teams each held serve for the first 12 games of the opening set. The tandems went to a tiebreaker where Geier and Kaye won the opening three points. Campbell and Derbani fought back by winning three of the next five points, including a forehand volley up the middle for a winner. The Kenyon team won the final two points for a 7-6 (3) win.
The second set played out much like the first with the pairs unable to break each other's serves for the initial three games. In the fourth, Kenyon broke through with a service break, grabbing a 3-1 edge and subsequently won the ensuing game for a 4-1 advantage. The Panthers were broken again by the Lords for a 5-1 lead and subsequently served for the second-set 6-1 win and the title.
Campbell and Derbani end the year with a 21-6 record, including a 10-match winning streak spanning from the end of the regular season through the team quarterfinal of the NCAA Tournament. Earlier this month, the pair was named to the NESCAC Second Team.
