The #5 Middlebury women's tennis team edged #4 Wesleyan 4-3 in a tightly-contested match inside the Nelson Recreation Center. The marathon top-five showdown saw four of the six singles matches go the distance.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Panthers grabbed the doubles point with wins in all three flights. The tandem of Claudia Miller and Elsie Van Wieren blanked their opponents in the second slot 6-0, while the duo of Nathalie van der Reis and Lulu Wu won at #3 (6-1) to give Middlebury the 1-0 advantage.
• The top pair of Sahana Raman and Nina Farhat triumphed 7-5 to close out doubles play.
• Raman breezed past Jackie Soloveychik at #1 (6-1, 6-3) to claim the second point of the match. 
• The Cardinals sliced the deficit to one (2-1) with a straight-set triumph at #3.
• Wu pushed the advantage to 3-1 with a three-set win. Wesleyan's Natalia Leroy claimed the first frame 6-4, but Wu rebounded to take the second and third by identical 6-3 tallies.
• The visitors moved to within 3-2 with a narrow triumph by Lane Durkin against Van Wieren (6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2)) in the second slot.
• In the fifth spot, van der Reis clinched the decisive point with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory against Macie Carlos.
• The Cardinals completed the scoring as Lucinda Gatsiounis edged Farhat in a hard-fought three-set battle at #6 (6-4, 5-7, 6-4) for the thrilling 4-3 decision.

NOTES

• The tandem of Raman and Farhat improved to 14-1 over the last 15 matches.
• The triumph was the 65th career win in doubles for Farhat.
• The programs met for the 34th matchup with the Panthers holding a 24-10 advantage.

Middlebury closes out the regular-season portion on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Prior to the match, the program will honor its four seniors on Senior Day.