Elsie Van Wieren of the #12 Middlebury women's tennis team took to the courts for the opening day of the 2026 NCAA Individual Championships from the Champions Tennis Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

HIGHLIGHTS

• In the round of 32, Van Wieren matched up with Carnegie Mellon's Jane Wong. She posted identical scores of 6-3 to move into the round of 16.
• The Panther met Eleanor Archer of Washington University in St. Louis. She raced out to a 4-1 lead before claiming the opener 6-4. The players split the first six points until Van Wieren won the seventh, jumping ahead 4-3. Momentum continued to favor the sophomore, as she fought back from down 40-15 with three consecutive wins to grab the second (6-4) and secure a spot in the quarterfinals.

NOTES

• Van Wieren improved to 18-4 during the spring campaign.
• She has won 10 of her last 11 singles matches.
• The Panther is the first women's tennis player to advance to the quarterfinals since former teammate Sahana Raman '25 punched her ticket as a sophomore in 2023.

Van Wieren meets top-seeded Matia Cristiani of Babson in the national quarterfinals on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. It marks the fourth time this season that the regional foes have met, with two of the previous battles going the distance.