This past weekend at the Middlebury Invitational in Vermont, Steven Milo ’13 and Josh Jordan ’13 started the season off by reaching the finals of the ‘A’ flight in doubles.
The pair began the tournament with a matchup against Nik Telkedzhiev ’16 and Rob Jacobson ’16 of Tufts University, easily dispatching them with an 8-2 victory before facing Alex Johnston ’14 and Palmer Campbell ’16 from host Middlebury. Against the duo from Middlebury, Milo and Jordan won 8-4.
With momentum on their side, they moved on to face Oliver Loutsenko ’14 and Danny Knight ’14 from Skidmore. The duo from Skidmore provided a challenge for Milo and Jordan; however, the Judges were able to eke out an 8-6 victory to move on to the championship round.
In the finals, Milo and Jordan faced a daunting task as they matched up against 2011-12 All-Americans Matt Bettles ’13 and Rob Crampton ’13 from Bates College. While the Judges put up an admirable fight, the tandem from Bates proved too much for them as they fell 8-2.
Crampton and Bettles also faced each other in the championship round of the ‘A’ flight singles.
Despite the loss in the championship round, Milo and Jordan’s performance is an auspicious sign for the Judges in these first few weeks. If the pair can stay healthy for the season, they have proved that they can hold their own and win against some of the toughest doubles competition in the Northeast.
In singles action, only Jordan was able to advance. In his first round matchup against Dan Freeman of Vassar, he won in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7-5); however, he ultimately fell in his quarterfinal matchup against Johnston, failing to register a game and losing 6-0, 6-0.
While Milo and Jordan were the standouts of the tournament for the Judges, other players achieved some success in ‘B’ flight doubles. Ben Fine ’15 and Robert Xie ’16 won their opening round matchup, defeating Jordan Kemp ’13 and Cam Smith ’16 from Trinity College 9-7; though they fell to Austin Blau ’14 and Mark Westerfield ’13 of Tufts, 8-2.
David Yovanoff ’13 and Michael Secular ’15 also won their opening round matchup against the Trinity pair of Daniel Carpenter and Aaron Segel, 8-5, before falling in the quarterfinals, 8-2, to the Tufts’ tandem of Jay Glickman and Brian Tan.
The team will look to build on the early season success when they return to action on Friday, Sept. 28 for the ITA New England Regionals.