LEWISTON – So often called the deepest conference in Division III tennis in recent years, the New England Small College Athletic Conference schools made it official Wednesday.

Paced by two unlikely heroes, Middlebury and Williams advanced in their national semifinal matches to take a place in the men’s Division III national championship match Friday.

Justin Ingoglia of Middlebury rallied from a 6-1 loss in the first set to post a three-set win over Josh Reubens of No. 1 Emory to lead the Panthers to the first national title game in school history. In the afternoon match, Jeff Kivitz of Williams endured a three-setter of his own, hanging on at the end to beat Kevin Casey of California-Santa Cruz 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 to pull out a 4-3 win for the Ephs.

Mighty Emory struck out

One year after Emory breezed through the competition to win the men’s national title, upset-minded Middlebury put an end to the Eagles’ reign.

Middlebury’s No. 5 singles player Ingoglia rebounded from a slow start to win his match against Reubens 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 to clinch the match for the Panthers.

“He’s a notoriously slow-starter,” Middlebury coach Dave Schwarz said of Ingoglia. “We’re still working with him on that, but he showed a lot of guts coming back like that.”

“He killed me in the first set,” Ingoglia said. “At that point I started looking around, hoping everyone else was ahead, but my coaches stuck with me. Once the crowd started getting into it, I started to come back.”

The Eagles’ No. 1 doubles pair of Mark Odgers and Alex Jacobs, the top-ranked doubles team in the country, won its match against Ingoglia and George Mayer, 8-6, but the other two Middlebury pairs came through to win the crucial doubles point, putting the Panthers ahead 1-0.

Jesse Ferlianto of Emory upended Alex Scott at No. 6 singles to square the match, but Middlebury took the next three when No. 1 singles player Nate Edmunds defeated Odgers 6-4, 6-3 and No. 2 singles player Brian Waldron held on to win against Tyson Ramsay 6-1, 7-5, setting up Ingoglia at No. 5 singles.

“I like to know what is going on around me,” Ingoglia said. “I started to notice more people coming to watch, and I kind of knew it came down to me winning.”

The other matches were suspended after Middlebury clinched the match with its fourth point. At No. 3 singles, Jacobs and Ari Beilin of Middlebury were all square at a set each, while Patrick Redmond of Emory led Mayer 6-4, 3-5.

Cruz-in to victory

To say that Williams and UCSC are no strangers may be be an understatement. After Kivitz toppled Casey with the entire crowd on hand at the Wallach Tennis Center watching, Williams coach David Johnson was nearly in tears as he hugged first his own players and then those from UCSC

“We’ve played each other so much over the years,” Johnson said. “Some of those kids are almost as special to me as my own.”

Williams plays a West Coast swing of matches every year, and each year that includes a match against the Banana Slugs.

“We see them so often,” Johnson said. “Last year we met them in the round of eight and just barely beat them. When I started coaching here, I tried to model this team after theirs. They were at the point where I wanted to bring this team.”

Part of the reason Williams even stayed in the match was the doubles point, which the Ephs pulled out with victories at Nos. 1 and 3 doubles. Andrew and Daniel Murray, playing at No. 1, eked out an 8-6 win over Matt Bruner and Kellen Ali Christie, while Kivitz and partner Scott MacKenzie downed Brian and Kevin Casey 8-4.

In singles play, UCSC won at No. 1 and No. 2 as Matt Seeberger and Brian Casey defeated Andrew and Daniel Murray, respectively.

Shane Templeman of UCSC defeated John Haywood at No. 4 singles to even the match after MacKenzie and Lex Urban had posted wins at Nos. 5 and 6 to give Williams the edge.

“I looked around, and I kind of knew that it would come down to me,” Kivitz said. “I just had to try and play more like I did in the first set when I won. I think in the second I started to ease up and rally a bit more instead of going for my points.”

Williams and Middlebury will meet at 1:00 p.m. Friday to decide which NESCAC school will take home this year’s national title. Williams won two straight in 2002-03, vut lost in the finals last year to Emory.

jpelletier@sunjournal.com

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