The sixth-ranked Middlebury women's tennis team suffered its first loss of the season to #5 Pomona-Pitzer on Wednesday evening. The Sagehens won 5-2 in a match that was played at the Palm Desert Resort Country Club in Palm Springs, California due to extreme weather.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Panther tandem Nathalie van der Reis and Sahana Raman jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the third slot. Pomona-Pitzer's Janie Marcus and Samantha Moore-Thomson battled back to knot the match 4-4, eventually easing to an 8-5 victory.
• At the top of the ladder, Gena Huang and Lulu Wu tied the contest twice, but Sagehen duo Nina Ye and Lauren Rha secured the 8-4 victory.
• Middlebury nearly grabbed a point in the middle of the lineup with a back-and-forth battle. Amy Delman and Brinlea La Barge trailed 5-3, but deadlocked the match at 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7. Angie Zhou and Marissa Markay won the tiebreaker to give Pomona-Pitzer a 3-0 advantage.
• The Sagehens extended the advantage to 4-0 with a point at #1.
• Anna Lardner got Middlebury on the board with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph in the sixth slot, before van der Reis made it 4-2 with a straight-set win (6-2, 6-0) at #4.
• Pomona-Pitzer clinched the match with a victory in the second spot for the 5-2 final.  

NOTES

• Van der Reis claimed her 20th career triumph, while extending her winning streak to double digits (10-0). 
• Lardner earned her 13th victory of the year. 
• The Panthers and the Sagehens met for the 13th time with Middlebury owning a 9-4 record.
• Prior to Wednesday's contest, the last three meetings were 5-4 decisions, with the Panthers edging the Sagehens in the 2022 NCAA Quarterfinals. 

 
Middlebury has a quick turnaround, taking on #20 California Institute of Technology on Thursday before heading home for a home weekend matchup with #4 Wesleyan to start NESCAC play.