The #3 Middlebury men's tennis team began the 2023 portion of its season with two home victories over Trinity and Saint Michael's on Saturday. The Panthers swept the Bantams 9-0, before topping the Purple Knights 8-1 in the Nelson Recreation Center.
 
HIGHLIGHTS VS. TRINITY

• The top tandem of Noah Laber and Aidan Harris cruised to an 8-1 win to open doubles play.
• The #3 duo of Robbie Ward and Julian Wu followed by easing to an 8-3 triumph.
• Joe Mairs and Neel Epstein battled back from a 4-2 deficit to claim an 8-6 victory to complete the doubles sweep.
• Wu carried his momentum into singles play, limiting his opponent to just two games in a 6-2, 6-0 victory. 
• Nathan Jackson made the score 5-0 by racing past his opponent 6-1, 6-0 to clinch the win. 
• In the fourth and first spots, Ward (6-2, 6-3) and Laber (7-5, 6-2) each earned straight-set victories, while Harris at #2 (6-0, 6-0) and Epstein one spot below (6-2, 6-1) completed the sweep.

HIGHLIGHTS VS. SAINT MICHAEL'S

• The Panthers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second match of the day, winning each of the doubles contests.
• Ward and Wu downed their opponent 8-5, while Hugh Hentschel and Zihao Yuan earned an 8-4 win to give Middlebury a 2-0 lead.
• The duo of Epstein and Mairs secured an 8-6 victory in the second spot.
• In singles, Hentschel earned the Panthers' first win in the third slot (6-3, 6-0). 
• Harris turned around an early deficit to claim a straight sets victory (6-4, 6-0) and clinch the match for Middlebury.
• Yuan (6-3, 6-0) and Mairs (7-6, 6-1) extended the lead to 7-0 with wins at #2 and #4.
• Andrew Mueller earned a hard-fought victory at #6 (7-5, 6-3), before the Purple Knights posted a three-set triumph in the fifth slot for the final 8-1 score.

NOTES

• Hentschel's win against Saint Michael's was the first of his career.
• Wu pushed his winning streak to eight overall and captured his team-leading 10th victory of the year.
• Epstein tallied his 25th career singles win against the Bantams.