The Washington University women’s tennis team held its own this weekend at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoors, battling through two losses and picking up a rousing upset victory against No. 9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

At the perennially-competitive tournament, hosted by Sewanee: The University of the South in Nashville, Tenn., the Bears were seeded eighth out of eight teams, so they faced an uphill battle from the start. On Friday, in their first match of the weekend, the Bears lost to No. 1 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, the defending national champions, 9-0. In the losers’ bracket, they upset No. 9 MIT in a tight match Saturday, 5-4, before falling to No. 11 Carnegie Mellon University Sunday, 5-2.

“We had a couple practices cancelled this week due to weather, so I’d say that we were able to do really well with not a lot under our belts so far,” head coach Kelly Stahlhuth said. “Everybody worked really hard and never gave up—everyone fought to the end and it was some solid competition for us.”

Friday’s sweep against CMS was the first the Bears, now 4-3, have suffered this season. Yet, the team did not give up.

“We knew that the other team was solid and we had a lot of close games with them, so the morale was not down or anything,” Stahlhuth said. “The players knew that they did the best they could.”

The Saturday match against MIT was a highlight of the weekend, as the No. 13 Bears made a statement that they are not to be taken lightly this season. Jumping out to an early 2-1 lead after doubles, the Bears held on for the upset. Playing the top singles slot, sophomore Ally Persky secured a two-set sweep, 6-4, 6-4, of MIT’s Libby Rickeman, the 30th-ranked player in Division III. Sophomore Ashley Lessen also played a crucial role in the Bears’ victory, defeating MIT’s Marina Zhang 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) in an exciting two sets.

“You never really know when you go in at the beginning of the year since we all have different returning and new players, so it was really nice to see that we are right there with a lot of the top teams,” Stahlhuth said about Saturday’s victory. “We were fired up and excited afterward. It was pretty good how we were able to compete.”

Despite the loss on Sunday, there were still bright spots for the Red and Green. Persky and her doubles partner, senior Lisa Chionis, defeated the second-highest ranked doubles team in the country, Carnegie Mellon’s Melissa Strome and Danna Taylor, in thrilling fashion, 8-7 (7-5). Freshman Divya Sharma and sophomore Laurel Wanger, the third doubles pairing, also beat their Carnegie Mellon counterparts, 8-6.

The tournament wraps up a long winter for the Bears. Weather has hampered them for months, as the team has so far played just three matches outdoors. Now, the move to outdoor courts should prove helpful, Stahlhuth said.

“We’ve always been a pretty strong outside team and we can grind out a lot of points. We can outlast people,” she said.

The team will fly to Florida on Friday for their annual spring break matches, a welcome relief from the seemingly undying cold in Missouri. In Orlando, they will have four matches in four days, including contests against No. 3 Amherst College and No. 5 Wesleyan University. With lots of tennis left, the Bears are just getting started.