Tennis Anyone?

Just like last year, I drove the one hour drive with my friend Ken to go watch Middlebury College play Tennis. The occasion was the National Championships for Division III, and this year they have added the tournaments for Division I and Division II. There is no cost for the Division III tournament.

It was Sunday, May 14th, aka Mother's Day so we assumed there would be no traffic. Our destination was the USTA National Campus located in Orlando next to Lake Nona. It was the Quarterfinals, and the Middlebury College Women Panthers, seeded #4, were playing the Blue Jays of John Hopkins, seeded #15. Outside the courts they had maps for each division and where the schools were from.

As we entered the seating area, they had already started to announce the teams. Courts 1-6 would host Middlebury versus John Hopkins. Courts 7-12 would be the Quarterfinals between #1 seed University of Chicago vs Carnegie Mellon. 

Teams line up for the introductions. Middlebury was wearing the white tops and John Hopkins the light blue. It was 9AM and the spectators were ready for some tennis...

There was  the playing of the National anthem and then the teams would start the tournament. First, there are three double matches and this is followed by six single matches. The winner is the first team that gets five points. Any games still being played are stopped. Middlebury team prepares for their doubles with a huddle.

In doubles, they play one set to 8 games. Below is the third doubles team for Middlebury of Sami Remis (left) and Nina Farhat. That is the umpire preparing for the coin toss to decide which team is serving first. Another thing Ken and I noticed early is that a game that goes to deuce is won on the next point. There is no Ad-in or Ad-out. I guess it quickens play.

Happily to say, this pair won the first point/match for Middlebury 8-2.

Sami serving to start their match with Nina at the net...

The second doubles was the team of Claudia Miller and Gena Huang. Their match was the longest going to a tiebreaker at 7-7 which they lost 7-5 and losing the point/match 8-7. Here is a shot of Claudia during play...

This is a shot of Gena waiting for serve...there were umpires but no line judges or ball handlers. The players were in charge of line calls and making sure their balls were available for play. Sometimes, this would be retrieving a ball two courts away. If the ball went over the fence, I saw some photographers retrieve those balls. There are gators you know!

This is the first winning point for Middlebury after their match was over, Nina and Sami...Interesting fact, this was the first lost of the season for the John Hopkins doubles team.

The #1 doubles was the team of Amy Delman and Sahana Raman. They won their match 8-5, putting Middlebury up 2-1 going into the singles. The lead meant they only needed to win three of the six single matches to win the Quarterfinals. This is Amy during the doubles match.

I decided to walk to the end of the viewing area to watch #6 Singles Gena Huang play for a while. There was no shade at this end so I only stayed for a bit. Here is Gena preparing to return a shot. Her match was in the third set when the match ended. Her singles match was called "Unfinished".

From the far end I took this photo of all the Middlebury Single matches going on at the same time.

The #5 Singles was Claudia Miller, who had lost in the Doubles but won 6-3, 6-3 in her match to give Middlebury a 3-1 team lead. Now they only needed two wins from the remaining five matches. Here is Claudia making a serve.

The #4 Singles was Nathalie van der Reis. Although her match was "Unfinished", she was one game away from a win. Her score was 6-2, 5-7, 5-2. Here is Nathalie making a serve.

The #3 Singles was Lulu Wu who had a tight match against her John Hopkins opponent Kamila Wong, losing 7-5, 7-5, making the score 4-2.

Here is Claudia Miller after winning her match...Middlebury ahead 3-1.

The #1 Singles for Middlebury was Sahana Raman. Here she is serving for the match which she won 6-3, 6-2, making the score 4-1 Middlebury.

Sahana shaking the hand of her opponent Marybeth Hurley of John Hopkins. Throughout the matches there was a cheer started by one person with everyone responding including some players. The cheer was "Let's Go, Hop!" and the response was the same. We thought their mascot might be a rabbit but found out they are the Blue Jays.

While Middlebury was playing John Hopkins, the University of Chicago was beating Carnegie Mellon 5-1. Since this match ended quickly, the introductions of the next two teams were started. Here is the Amherst team, also from NESCAC, the conference where Middlebury plays.

Amherst opponents were Claremont Mudd Scripps from Claremont California. They would beat Amherst 5-4.

The #2 Singles was Amy Delman, making a return below...

Amy would win her match 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 to clench the win for Middlebury 5-2. The team rushed her after the winning point...

After shaking hands with John Hopkins opponent Jay Xiao, she leaves the hot court of Central Florida.

The team poses for a victory shot on the court after advancing to the Semifinals to face University of Chicago.

The girls gathered outside the stadium for a "Final Four" shot taken by Ali Paquette.

As Ken and I were leaving the campus, I took this shot of the tournament courts, and I thought maybe we should come back to see the Middlebury men play their Semifinals which was scheduled for the next day at Noon. But that will be another post...

More tennis in next post including Final results...