The seventh-ranked Middlebury women's tennis team took a 3-1 lead but was unable to stave off #1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps' comeback bid in NCAA Quarterfinal action. The Panthers fell 5-3 to the two-time defending national champions, concluding their season with their eighth-straight appearance in the elite eight.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Athenas took the first point of the day at the top spot in doubles. The match was tied at 2-2 and 3-3 before the tandem of Nikolina Batoshvili and Alisha Chulani claimed three-straight games to take a 6-3 lead. The Middlebury pair of Amy Delman and Sahana Raman battled back to claim the 10th game, but was unable to overcome the deficit, as CMS earned the 8-4 victory.
• At #3, Nathalie van der Reis and Lulu Wu jumped out to a commanding 4-0 advantage. The Athena duo of Sena Selby and Audrey Yoon slowly chipped away at the Panther lead, slicing it down to just one (7-6), but Middlebury was able to secure the final game to take the set 8-6 and knot the match at 1-1.
• The CMS pair of Ella Brissett and Lindsay Eisenman won three-straight games to open the bout in the second slot. Gena Huang and Claudia Miller remained unrattled, battling back to tie the contest at four triumphs apiece. Deadlocked at 5-5, Huang and Miller doubled down, claiming three-unanswered games to earn an 8-5 victory and give Middlebury a 2-1 edge heading into singles action.
• Van der Reis made quick work of her opening set in the sixth slot. The Panther rattled off four-consecutive wins en route to a 6-1 triumph in just over 30 minutes, before topping Batoshivili 6-3 in the second to put Middlebury ahead 3-1.
• CMS responded with a trio of straight-set triumphs at #2, #3 and #4 to storm into a 4-3 advantage and put the match within reach.
• At the top of the lineup, Raman fell 6-4 in the opener, but battled back to split the contest with a 6-4 win of her own. Athena Eisenman answered with a 6-2 triumph to clinch the 5-3 victory for CMS.
• At the conclusion of the match, Delman was in a tight battle at #5. The Panther and Selby traded every game in the opening set and saw their tiebreaker deadlocked six times before Delman claimed two-straight points for a 9-7 win. The middle frame was a back-and-forth affair, but Selby emerged victorious 6-4. At the time of the match-clinching point, Delman was up 3-0 in the third set.

NOTES

• Van der Reis and Wu claimed their seventh-straight doubles match and finished the year with an unblemished 7-0 record. Van der Reis also claimed her sixth singles victory in a row.
• The Panthers made their eighth-straight appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals and 11th overall. Middlebury has qualified for the national tournament 19 times. 

The Panthers conclude the year with a 15-6 overall record, eclipsing 15 wins for the 10th time in program history.