The No. 1-ranked Emory men's tennis team has earned a spot in the semifinal round of the NCAA Division III Championships following a 5-2 victory in the quarterfinals over No. 10-ranked Middlebury College Tuesday afternoon. Matches are taking place at the Biszantz Family Tennis Center and Pauley Tennis Complex in Claremont, California.  The victory boosts the Eagles’ overall record to 23-3 while the Panthers, who entered today's contest as defending national champs, concluded their year at 18-4.

Middlebury claimed the first point of the match as its No. 2 doubles team of Derrick Angle and Mike Malhame topped Emory’s duo by an 8-2 margin.  The Eagles were able to knot the match following No.1 doubles as juniors Chris Goodwin and Will Humphreys held off Brantner Jones and Andy Peters by an 8-6 score.  Two turning points in the match came when Emory trailed by a 4-3 count and faced a 0-40 obstacle.  However, the tandem, which raised their overall record to 29-5, stormed back with five straight points to tie things up at 4-4.  Later on, with Emory holding a 6-5 match lead, Goodwin and Humphreys fell behind by another 0-40 score before rattling off five straight points again to take a 7-5 edge.  After Middlebury held serve, the Emory pair closed out the battle with Humphrey’s ace the deciding point.  Meanwhile, senior Colin Egan and junior Dillon Pottish were engaged in an intense clash with David Farah and Spencer Lunghino at No. 2, where they eventually prevailed by a 9-7 decision, upping their won-lost slate to 21-3 this year.

Goodwin increased Emory’s lead to 3-1 after he registered a decisive 6-0, 6-2 verdict over Zach Bruchmiller at No. 2 singles. The win was his sixth straight and upped his record to 22-3 this spring.  Pottish then put the Eagles one point away from clinching the match when he came away with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Andy Peters, the No. 2-ranked player in the Northeast Region.  The victory was Pottish’s 31^st in 33 outings in 2010-11 and 22^nd in 23 matches in the spring.  A win by Lunghino at No.4 singles kept Middlebury’s hopes alive, but senior Colin Egan squashed any hopes of a Panther comeback when he won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, over Alec Parower at No. 3.  With the win, Egan saw his record go to 18-2 at the No. 3 slot this spring.

Two singles matches went unfinished.  Angle had a 3-1 lead in the third set over freshman Nick Szczurek at No. 4 singles while Jones held a 1-0 lead in the match and a 6-5 advantage in the second set over Bajoria at No. 6.

Emory will tangle with University Athletic Association foe and No. 5-ranked Washington University (18-5) in the semifinals on Wednesday.  The Bears earned a spot in the semis with a 5-2 win over No.6 Kenyon in the quarters. It marks the ninth time in the 12-year tenure as head coach that John Browning has directed the Eagles to the semifinal round.  The Eagles and Bears will square off at 6:00 p.m. (EDT).  The winner advances to the championship match on Thursday (May 26) starting at 5:00 p.m. (EDT).