A pair of Middlebury men's tennis players participated in day one of the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournaments on Thursday, highlighted by Lubomir Cuba's two wins in singles and the doubles duo of Cuba and William de Quant advancing to the quarterfinal round. Matches are being held at the Champions Club Tennis Complex at Rivermont Park in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

In the singles competition, Cuba started the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed. He eased past Jake Yasgoor of Pomona-Pitzer by set scores of 6-3 and 7-5. In the round of 16, Cuba cruised over Courtney Murphy of Wilkes (6-4, 6-2). He will play Erik Kerrigan of Chicago on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the quarterfinals.

Also competing for the Panthers as an individual was de Quant, who dropped his opening-round match. Against Chicago's Nicolas Chua, de Quant took the first set of the match 6-3, but Chua rebounded, taking the second set 6-1. Chua grabbed the win with a 6-1 decisive set. The northeast region's sixth-ranked player, de Quant finishes his junior season with a record of 27-9 after posting a 23-7 mark last season and 23-4 during his rookie season.

In a bracket of 16 tandems, Cuba and de Quant needed three sets to get past Washington-St. Louis' Jason Haugen and Konrad Kozlowski. Haugen and Kozlowski won the first set 6-3, but the second-seeded Panther duo tied the match at 1-1 with a 6-2 victory in set number two. Looking for a spot in the quarterfinals, Cuba and de Quant won the decisive set by a 6-3 tally.

The Panther pair will play Gustavus Adolphus' Mohanad Al-Houni and Patrick Whaling on Friday at 4:30 p.m. The two teams just plated in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Monday, with the Panther pair winning the final three games for a 9-7 triumph. On Thursday, the Gusties' team knocked off the Redlands' pair of Joey Dulle and Jake Ly in straight sets (6-3, 6-2).