Bettles, Crampton go 10-0 at Middlebury Invitational
Matt Bettles ’13 (foreground) and Rob Crampton ’13 have gone a collective 10-0 at the Middlebury Invitational. (File photo courtesy of Bates Tennis Blog.)
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Bates seniors Rob Crampton and Matt Bettles both advanced to the championship final of the Singles A Flight on Sunday, putting an exclamation point on Bates’ successful venture at the season-opening Middlebury Invitational. The Bobcat teammates also won the A Doubles Flight, and sophomores Pierre Planche (Natick, Mass.) and Henry Lee (Sag Harbor, N.Y.) claimed the B Doubles Flight crown.
Crampton and Bettles will play the final back in the home confines of the Wallach Tennis Center later this week, guaranteeing Bates three flight titles among the six flights at the tournament.
When we last heard from Crampton (Wilton, Conn.) and Bettles (Taunton, England), the teammates were All-America doubles quarterfinalists in the 2012 NCAA Division III Men’s Tennis Championships, while Crampton reached the semifinals of the singles championship.
On Saturday morning, Bettles and Crampton opened the A Doubles Flight play with an 8-4 win over Siegel/Krems of Brandeis, then went on to oust Gusik/Freeman of Vassar 8-6. On Sunday afternoon, they resumed play with an 8-1 demolition of Parower/Welch of Middlebury. Their championship match victory was nearly as dominating, an 8-2 decision over Milo/Jordan of Brandeis.
Both Bates seniors went 3-0 in the A Singles Flight to set up their championship match. Crampton defeated Miles Ransom of Skidmore 6-7(4), 6-3 (10-4) in the Round of 16, then Ben Barad of Tufts 6-2 in the quarterfinals and finally, Alex Johnson of Middlebury 6-4, 4-6 (10-8) in Sunday afternoon’s semifinal. Bettles sliced through Steven Milo of Brandeis (6-4, 6-3) in the first round, Middlebury’s Jackson Frons in the quarterfinals (7-5, 7-6(5)) and Jay Glickman of Tufts 7-6(3), 6-1 in the semifinals.
Planche and Lee ran the table through first-round opponents Mountifield/Smolyer of Middlebury (8-4) on Saturday, Steerman/Ransom of Skidmore (8-1) in the quarterfinals on Sunday, followed by a 9-7 win over Blau/Westerfield of Tufts and, in the championship match, an 8-4 victory over Sanderson/Tong of Skidmore.
Other Bates highlights at the tournament included:
Junior Eric Ruta (Ridgewood, N.J.) advanced to the semifinals of the C Singles Flight. Ruta posted a 6-3, 0-6, 11-9 victory over Jonah Epstein of Skidmore, followed by a 6-0, 6-2 win over Daniel Cooper of Vassar. Eventual flight winner Ari Smolyer of Middlebury eliminated Ruta in the semifinals.
Senior Kyle DeSisto (Cohasset, Mass.) went 2-1 in the D Singles Flight, defeating Christian Lyon of Vassar 1-6, 6-3, 10-8 and Nick Tong of Skidmore 6-1, 7-6(3) before falling to Cam Smith of Trinity in the semifinals.
Planche defeated Skidmore’s Danny Knight 6-4, 6-2 before losing a marathon quarterfinal to Middlebury’s Courtney Mountifield, 6-4, 5-7, 15-13.
Bates senior Dylan Reffe (Washington, D.C.) and first-year Cosmin Bardan (Bacau, Romania) went 1-1 in the B Doubles Flight.