CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The No. 42 TCNJ women's tennis team put up a fight in two of three doubles flights and in a handful of second sets in singles, but No. 10 Middlebury proved too much in a 5-0 defeat in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at MIT on Saturday.
 
The Panthers, on a run of six consecutive Final Fours, advanced to Sunday's regional final against the host Engineers.
 
FOR THE RECORD

• Middlebury moved to 14-5 on the year, while TCNJ ended its season with an overall mark of 17-3

DOUBLES

• The Panthers grabbed a quick lead with an 8-0 win from Nathalie van der Reis and Lulu Wu at No. 3
• Zoey Albert and Chase Eisenberg gave Middlebury's Sahana Raman and Amy Delman, who reached the quarterfinals of the ITA Cup in the fall, a staunch fight in the top flight. Trailing 4-2, the Lions' premier pairing ran off three straight games to grab a 5-4 lead, but the Panthers managed to grab the next four games and an 8-5 decision
• Hoping to steal a point, Aira Abalos and Marcella Warner were locked in a nip-and-tuck tussle with Claudia Miller and Gena Huang at No. 2, staying within a game at every changeover until Miller and Huang used a late break to turn a 6-5 thriller into another 8-5 final

SINGLES

• Van der Reis made it 4-0 with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 5, and Delman clinched it with a 6-2, 6-1 victory at No. 4
• The other four courts were tight. Albert (No. 2) and Robinson (No. 6) were both knotted at 4-4 in their respective second sets, while Eisenberg (No. 3) was down just 5-4 in hers
• Abalos trailed 6-2, 4-1 at No. 1

NOTES

• TCNJ extended its streak of seasons with a first-round NCAA Tournament victory to 17 with Friday's 5-0 win over Manhattanville
• Eisenberg wrapped up her tremendous TCNJ career with an overall record of 116-35 (46-15 in singles and 70-20 in doubles); she won a career-high 37 matches as a senior
• Abalos and Warner were nearly unbeatable this season, winning all 19 of their dual matches until Miller and Huang managed to hold them off on Saturday
• Warner suffered her first loss of the year in both singles duals and doubles duals
• The Lions' four-headed group of first-year standouts – Albert (41-10), Priyadarshini (40-9), Robinson (36-11), and Warner (42-5) – combined to go 159-35 overall this season