Trinity Women's Tennis Loses To Middlebury In NESCAC Tourney

Williamstown, Mass. - The No. 3-seeded Middlebury College Panthers used solid singles play to advance past the No. 6-seeded Trinity College Bantams in the first round of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Women's Tennis Championship Tournament at Williams College this evening.  Trinity falls to 12-6 and Middlebury improves to 10-8 and will play Amherst in the semifinals tomorrow afternoon at Williams.

Beginning with singles play, instead of the traditional doubles, the Panthers took five of the six singles matches in straight sets.  Middlebury had defeated Trinity earlier in the season, 8-1.  Anne Burke began things on a positive note, cruising at court five in a 6-0, 6-0 result over Jillian Steckloff.  Chandra Kurien and Liz Stone continued the Middlebury dominance with 6-1, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-1 wins at courts two and three, respectively.

Jamie Haar defeated Olivia Merns at court six, 6-1, 6-3, while Tori Aiello took the decisive fifth point at court one.  Aiello managed to take a break in the first set before finishing off her opponent in an easy second set.  Trinity sophomore Robyn Williams (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) took one match at court four, defeating Claire Burke, 7-5, 6-1.

MATCH RESULTS
Singles
Singles-
1. M- Tori Aiello d. Amanda Tremont, 7-5, 6-1
2. M- Chandra Kurien d. Arielle Leben, 6-1, 6-0
3. M- Liz Stone d. Sarah Gould, 6-1, 6-1
4. TC- Robyn Williams d. Claire Burke, 7-5, 6-1
5. M- Anne Burke d. Jillian Steckloff, 6-0, 6-0
6. M- Jamie Haar d. Olivia Merns, 6-1, 6-3
Doubles
1. DNF
2. DNF
3. DNF
Middlebury 5, Trinity (Conn.) 1