The fifth-ranked Middlebury men's tennis team fell by a 5-4 score to #12 Bowdoin in the Panthers' final road match of the regular season. Sunday's contest was the 50th meeting all-time between the programs.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Polar Bears took the early lead with an 8-2 victory in the top spot of the doubles lineup.
• Middlebury leveled the score at 1-1 with a victory at #3. The tandem of Julian Wu and Joe Mairs battled back from a 5-4 deficit to even the match at six games apiece. Wu and Mairs won the next two games to earn the 8-6 win.
• The Panthers took a 2-1 lead, winning a back-and-forth match in the second slot. The duo of Neel Epstein and Robby Ward took a 6-4 lead, before their opponents won the next three games for a 7-6 edge. The Middlebury pair held serve, forcing a tiebreaker and winning the initial five points on the way to an 8-7 (1) triumph.
• Wu pushed the advantage to 3-1 in favor of the Panthers with a straight-set win at #5 by identical scores of 6-3.
• Bowdoin won four-straight tightly-contested matches at the #6, #3, #1 and #2 to clinch the conference victory.
• Ward earned Middlebury's fourth point, outlasting his opponent at #4 by scores of 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-6) for the final 5-4 tally.

NOTES

• The tandem of Epstein and Ward claimed its sixth-consecutive victory.
• Wu continued his strong rookie season, pushing his winning streak to 18 in a row and picking up his team-leading 20th triumph (20-2).
• The Panthers possess a 33-17 advantage in the all-time series, including wins in nine of the last 13 matchups.

Middlebury returns to action for the final weekend of the regular season, beginning on Saturday with a 2:00 p.m. home match against 21st-ranked Amherst.