The #6 Middlebury men's tennis team dropped a hard-fought 4-3 contest to #1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) on Tuesday evening in the second match of the Panthers' spring trip.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Middlebury's top duo of Noah Laber and Thehan Wijemanne grabbed a 6-3 win to begin doubles play.
• The Stags recorded a 6-4 decision in the second spot to turn the attention to the match at #3.
• Deadlocked at 5-5 in the decisive match, the tandems of Warren Pham and Matthew Robinson from CMS and Middlebury's Noah Lewis and Julian Wu traded the next two games to send it to a tiebreaker. The Stag duo claimed seven of the nine markers to secure the first point of the match. 
• The hosts doubled their advantage with a straight-sets triumph in the top spot of the singles lineup.
• The Panthers sliced the deficit to 2-1 behind a 6-4, 6-3 victory at #2 from Laber.
• The Stags posted a pair of close straight-set wins at #5 and #4 to clinch the match.
• The final two matches were back-and-forth marathons that required superbreakers that favored Middlebury. Wijemanne outlasted Anirudh Gupta in the sixth spot by scores of 6-7 (5), 6-4 and 1-0 (10-4), while Neel Epstein defeated Robinson 6-4, 6-7 (9) and 1-0 (11-9) for the final 4-3 tally.

NOTES

• Laber recorded his 50th career win during singles play and has won five-straight matches.
• The doubles triumph was the 30th of Wijemanne's career.
• The programs played for the 20th time.

The Panthers return to action on Wednesday when they take on Pomona-Pitzer at 7:00 p.m. ET.