The eighth-ranked Middlebury men's tennis team began its weekend in Maine with a 7-2 victory Friday over NESCAC foe Bates (5-9, 3-2) at the Wallach Tennis Center. Middlebury (12-5, 5-1) returns to action tomorrow with a 2:00 p.m. contest at fourth-ranked Bowdoin in a rematch of last spring's NCAA Championship match.

During doubles play, the Panthers earned victories in all three of the matches. The tandem of Lubomir Cuba and Peter Martin started things off with an 8-2 victory at No. 1 over Josh Quijano and Duane Davis. The second team of Noah Farrell and Aleksandr Samets posted an identical 8-2 win against Nick Glover and Ben Eckardt. The third duo of Nate Eazor and Andre Xiao completed the sweep for the Panthers with a narrow 8-6 victory against Jacob Kauppila.

In singles action, the Bobcats got on the scoreboard via a retirement at No. 1. Eazor picked up a 6-2, 6-1 win in the fifth spot over Kennedy, while Stanley Morris clinched the match for the visitors with a 6-0, 6-2 victory in the fourth position over Jacob Eisenberg. Alex Vanezis made the score 6-1 in favor of Middlebury with a 6-2, 6-1 triumph at No. 6 over Davis.

The Bobcats tallied their second point of the match with a victory at No. 2, before Middlebury's Adam Guo tallied a 6-3, 3-6 10-5 win against Eckardt at No. 3 for the final 7-2 score.