Box Score Neel Epstein, Robby Ward and Julian Wu of the #7 Middlebury men's tennis team competed at the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship on Sunday. Action was halted throughout the competition due to tornadoes and severe weather in the area that paused play and made for a lengthy day forcing matches indoors.  
 
WU'S FIRST-ROUND HIGHLIGHTS

• In his opening-round competition against Redland's Nicolas Calixto, the Bulldog raced out to a 4-0 and cruised to a 6-2 triumph.
• Tied at 1-1 in the second set, Wu ripped off four-straight victories for a 5-1 advantage. Calixto claimed games seven and eight to move to within two (5-3), but the Panther held serve in a tight ninth game for a 6-3 triumph.
• The third set had Wu turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 lead with three-consecutive wins. Calixto battled back to even the contest at 5-5 and 6-6, sending it to a decisive tiebreaker. In the winner-take-all breaker, Wu was victorious in four of the first six points for a 4-2 edge. The Bulldog fought back to make it 5-4, but Wu broke Calixto's serve and held for a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) triumph to propel him to the round of 16. 

WU'S SECOND-ROUND HIGHLIGHTS

• Wu advanced to play seventh-seeded Matt Kandel from Williams. The Eph raced out to take five of the first six games of the opening set for a 5-1 lead. The Panther responded by winning games seven through nine to pull within one (5-4), but Kandel held serve and earned the opening stanza 6-4.
• Deadlocked at 2-2 in the second frame, Wu rattled off four-straight victories to even the match at a set apiece with a 6-2 win.
• The decisive third frame saw the competitors split the opening four games. Kandel won games five and six, while Wu followed with triumphs in games seven and eight. After trading the next two games, the Eph broke Wu's serve and held his own for a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory.

EPSTEIN & WARD'S FIRST-ROUND HIGHLIGHTS

• Squaring off against Denison's Ethan Green and Kael Shah in the first round, the Big Red pair won the initial two games of the opening set. The Panther pair won two of the next three to pull within one (3-2), but Green and Shah triumphed in games six, seven and eight for the 6-2 final score.
• The second frame saw the two pairs split games one through eight to be deadlocked at 4-4. Epstein and Ward held serve and pulled ahead 5-4, but the Denison duo won the last three for a 6-2, 7-5 triumph.

NOTES

• Wu improved to an impressive 51-11 over his first two years in a Middlebury uniform, including a 26-7 mark this season.
• The meeting between Kandel and Wu was the second this year, as the Panther claimed a 6-4, 6-2 victory on October 1 to claim the ITA New England Regional Title. The matchup with Calixto and Wu was the initial showdown.
• Epstein and Ward finished their season as a pair with a 13-9 record in the top spot of the Middlebury lineup. The contest was the first time the tandem played the Denison duo this season.

The trio of Panthers helped Middlebury advance to the NCAA and NESCAC Semifinals with a 20-5 record this spring.