Box Score The #4 Middlebury men's tennis team dropped its first match of the spring season, falling 4-1 to Azusa Pacific. With the Cougars being a Division II school, those rules were used for scoring, with the best-of-three doubles results counting for one point and the match concluding with the clinching point.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Azusa Pacific earned a 6-3 win at #1 to start the evening, but Aidan Harris and Noah Laber triumphed 6-3 in the second spot, forcing the doubles point to be decided in the third slot.
• Joe Mairs and Julian Wu battled hard, but came up short 6-4 as the Cougars took a 1-0 edge after doubles.
• Azusa Pacific earned straight-set wins at #1 and #3 to take a 3-0 lead.
• Harris gave Middlebury a point with a 6-4, 6-1 win in the fourth spot to make it 3-1.
• The Cougars secured the match with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph at #6.
• When the match was clinched, Wu had been victorious in his opening set 6-4 and was up 4-2 in the second spot. Neel Epstein was also ahead, having claimed a tiebreaker (7-6(1)) in his intial set, while trailing 4-1 in the second set at #5. 

NOTES

• The Panthers remain unbeaten (8-0) in Division III play.
• Harris and Laber improved to 5-0 on the season, while Harris is 3-0 in singles.
• The programs played for the ninth time.

Middlebury is idle until Thursday when it travels to Pomona-Pitzer for an 8:00 p.m. EST match.