Box Score The #5 Panther men's tennis team opened the fall portion of its schedule by hosting the Middlebury Invitational. The tournament featured six teams competing in singles and doubles action, highlighted by Middlebury players earning titles in the "A" doubles and "C" singles brackets.

SINGLES HIGHLIGHTS

• The "C" bracket featured Reif Larsen who cruised into the final with straight-set victories over his first three opponents. In the championship match, Larsen won the first set 6-4 before Suhas Krishnan of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) won 6-2 in the second. Larsen earned the title with a 10-3 decision in the superbreaker.
• Sidney Huet started his Middlebury career on a strong note in the bracket, tallying 6-3, 7-6 (3) and 7-6 (5), 6-0 wins to advance to the semifinals.
• Four Panthers competed in the "A" bracket of 16. Noah Laber, the #2 seed, breezed past his opponents by 6-1, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-4 scores before falling in the semifinals to third-seeded and eventual champion Aiden Drover-Mattinen of RPI.
• Neel Epstein reached the semifinal round, needing three sets in his initial match before earning a sweep in the quarterfinals. He dropped a hard-fought 5-7, 6-3, 11-9 decision to top-seeded Dylan Walters of Brandeis.
• Noah Lewis recorded a come-from-behind 1-6, 6-3, 10-0 victory in his first match of the season.
• The "B" bracket saw Nikky Kondamuri tally decisive straight-set wins in the first three matches to reach the final. Kondamuri fell in the first set to Brandeis' Aidan Wang-Fan 6-4 in the championship match but rebounded to force a decisive set with a 6-2 victory. Wang-Fan edged the Panther 10-8 in the superbreaker to earn the title.
• Thehan Wijemanne also tallied a pair of victories, each coming in straight sets before bowing out against Wang-Fan in the semifinals.

DOUBLES HIGHLIGHTS

• The tandem of Laber and Hugh Hentschel, seeded third in the "A" bracket, received an opening-round bye before blanking their opponents in the quarterfinals. The Panther pair was victorious 8-3 in the semifinal round and posted an identical score to defeat Brandeis' Daniel Shemesh and Dylan Walters to earn the title.
• The team of Epstein and Wijemanne also made it to the semifinals before falling 8-6 to Shemesh and Walters.
• In the "B" bracket, the duo of Kondamuri and Larsen picked up an 8-7 (4) win to earn a place in the semifinals.

NOTES

• The victories by Larsen and Huet are the first of their respective careers in singles action.
• Laber's pair of wins push him over the 40-victory plateau during individual play (41-20).

The Panthers return to the court on September 27-29 when they travel to Medford, Massachusetts for the ITA Regional Championships hosted by Tufts.