Courtesy of Brian Beard

Last weekend, the women’s tennis team (11–6; 8–2 NESCAC) hosted two matches to wrap up its regular season. With victories in both, the Polar Bears earned the second seed in this weekend’s NESCAC Tournament.

On Saturday morning, the team defeated Williams College (11–7; 5–5 NESCAC) by a score of 5–2. Starting with the doubles matches, the Polar Bears took care of business to earn the first point of the match. Zoe Sun ’27 and Bella Hartung ’28 took the first seed match 6–3, Cara Hung ’26 and Suzanne Pogorelec ’28 won 6–2 on the second court and Caroline Stuhlfaut ’27 and Naomi Williams ’29 achieved a 7–5 victory as the third seed.

Sun explained how the recent change to the formatting of the doubles matches changed the team’s mentality.

“It used to be that every doubles match counted as a point, but now it’s if you win two out of three you get one point,” Sun said. “So it goes either way, but not having the doubles point means you have to win four singles matches which can be really difficult against competitive teams.”

The Polar Bears took their dominance to the singles matches, winning at the one, two, four and five positions. Hung cruised to a 6–1, 6–3 victory at the top spot. The senior noted the bittersweetness of playing her last two regular season home matches.

“It’s obviously so sad to think about, just because you start to think about all the years you put it on the court since junior tennis,” Hung said. “I’ve spent so much time dedicated to the sport, I wanted it to end on a really good note. So the fact that it did really made it so special to me. Now that I think about it more, it wasn’t really the wins that made the weekend for me. It was more being with my teammates, just taking it all in and really cherishing the moments that I have with them that made the weekend so special.”

Pogorelec played the second seed, winning 6–3, 6–4; Sun dismantled her opponent 6–0, 6–1; and Stuhlfaut took the fifth match 6–1, 6–2.

Sunday’s match versus Middlebury College (12–5; 8–2 NESCAC) was more of an uphill battle. After dropping the doubles point, the Polar Bears needed standout singles performances. Hung gave praise to the team’s juniors for their empowering words ahead of the singles matches.

“I want to shout out [Stuhlfaut] and [Sun], who are both part of leadership on our team, who really took the reins in our group huddle after we lost that doubles point and emphasized the point of, ‘Hey, it doesn’t matter that we’re down, we’re still tough,’” Hung said. “All that positive reinforcement and messaging allowed all of us to reset in that moment and get our heads right for singles.”

After dropping the first set 4–6, Pogorelec came back to win the next two sets 6–2, 6–3 to get the Polar Bears on the board. One court over, Hartung had similar results, losing the first set 6–7 before winning the next two 6–3, 6–2. As the fifth seed, Stuhlfaut had an up-and-down match but ultimately came out victorious with a 7–5 third set tiebreaker win.

Sun noted how the team embraces the tough moments of matches and knows how to come back strong.

“One thing we say is ‘tennis isn’t perfect’ and it’s kind of impossible to play at the same level the entire match,” Sun said. “So there’s always momentum shifts, moments when people get hot or cold. So it’s being able to reset after a first set loss, which our team has done in tight matches all year.”

With the score tied 3–3, the overall match came down to Sun as the fourth seed. The junior won the first set 7–6, but her opponent regrouped to win the second set 6–3. With eyes on her court, Sun steadied the ship to win the third set 6–1, clinching the match for the Polar Bears who ran on court to celebrate the victory.

“Everyone was cheering, and it definitely pushed me to do better,” Sun said. “I think the third set was really clean tennis, and I totally credit that to the support of my team.”

The NESCAC Tournament is hosted by Middlebury College this year. The Polar Bears will play Hamilton College (10–7; 4–6 NESCAC), who they beat 6–1 during the regular season, in the quarterfinals today at 1 p.m.

“This is the highest we’ve ever been seeded at a tournament, [which] means a lot, but it also doesn’t mean that much,” Sun said. “We’re trying to stay humble, stay hungry and not worry about the rankings and statistics of it all.”