In a battle of top-10 nationally-ranked foes, the sixth-ranked Middlebury women's tennis team earned a hard-fought 5-4 win late Wednesday at No. 4 Pomona-Pitzer. The match was played at the Pauley Tennis Complex in Claremont, California. The Panthers (5-0) return to action on Friday in a 5:00 p.m. eastern match at Redlands.

Middlebury grabbed two of the three points during doubles play. The Sagehens (8-3) posted an 8-4 victory in the third spot to grab the early lead. The Panther duo of Katherine Hughes and Skylar Schossberger leveled the match at 1-1 with an 8-5 win in the top spot over Maria Lyven and Margherita Andreassi, while the No. 2 tandem of Heather Boehm and Ann Martin Skelly gave the visitors a 2-1 advantage with a narrow 8-6 triumph at No. 2 over Lucy Jiang and Arianna Chen.

In singles action, Pomona-Pitzer claimed the matches at No. 1 and No. 6, taking a 3-2 lead. The Panthers moved ahead 4-3 when Christina Puccinelli defeated Arianna Chen in the third spot (6-3, 6-3), followed by a 6-2, 6-4 victory by Schossberger one place below against Andreassi.  

The Sagehens tallied a narrow straight-set win at No. 5, knotting the match at 4-4. In the last flight remaining, Boehm won the opening set 6-4 in the second spot, before Lyven earned the second 6-2. Boehm won the team's fifth point with a 6-3 decision in the third set for the 5-4 Panther win.