Eleanor Archer and Caitlin Bui won the Division III doubles bracket of the ITA Cup, a national tournament WashU had never won before. (Photo Courtesy of ITA)

When sophomore Eleanor Archer and first-year Caitlin Bui stepped onto the courts at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Cup, they became the first WashU women’s tennis team to make an appearance at the tournament in seven years. By the end of the weekend, they had accomplished something no WashU team had ever done — bringing home an ITA national doubles championship. 

Over the four-day tournament from Oct. 10-13, Archer and Bui swept the competition, winning four straight matches without dropping a single set. 

“It felt really special, felt like I was able to make a difference,” Bui said. “I was just really proud of us. We played really well together, and I’m just proud that we got WashU’s first ITA cup.”

Throughout the tournament, Archer and Bui consistently went up against teams who were higher-ranked and more experienced than the young pair. However, no matter who they faced, their self-confidence never wavered.

“We didn’t think about the rankings, because in these types of tournaments, the rankings don’t mean much, and upsets happen all the time…” Archer said. “Even when we played a team that was higher seeded or higher ranked, we knew that we definitely had the potential to win.”

Singles and doubles teams qualify for their division’s ITA Cup —the culmination of the fall season, which has brackets for Division II, Division III, NAIA, and JUCO — by finishing first or second in their regional qualifiers. WashU entered the qualifier ranked No. 4 in the Midwest. Despite losing in the regional championships on a tiebreaker against a team from the University of Chicago, Archer and Bui’s run to the regional final was enough to earn their spot in the Division III national tournament.

“We knew we had a strong team in Caitlin and Eleanor heading into the tournament, and we also knew we would be competing against the best national competition,” head coach Paige Madara wrote in a statement to Student Life. “We have not qualified anyone to [the] ITA Cup since 2017, so our goal was to compete hard and enjoy the experience.”

In the first round, Archer and Bui took care of a team from Gustavus Adolphus College 6-2, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, the Bears beat a Wesleyan University duo 6-0, 6-2. According to Archer, the match was much closer than the final scoreline represents.

“In our quarterfinal match against Wesleyan, it was 6-0, 6-2, but I think it still felt like a really close match to us because all the games were very close,” she said. “Even if we had lost just like five more points, it could have easily gone the other way.”

In the semi-finals, they took down Sewanee: The University of the South’s Ansley Carpenter and Brooke Despriet 6-2, 6-3 to clinch a spot in the championship game. With the win, the Bears surpassed WashU’s previous best mark at the tournament, which came when Rebecca Ho and Kaylan Griffith finished third in 2016.

Though Archer and Bui knew that a spot in the finals was within grasp for the team entering the tournament, they made sure not to get ahead of themselves during their run.

“We just tried to take it one point at a time,” Archer said. “I think we both knew that we had the potential to win the tournament, but we didn’t want to think ahead.”

In the finals, Archer and Bui faced Emory University’s Dakota Fordham and Emily Kantrovitz, both of whom were named All-Americans last season. Fordham and Kantrovitz’s experience was on display from the start, as they won the first three games. From there, however, Archer and Bui hunkered down, going on a run and eventually tying the set at six games apiece. In a tiebreaker, the Bears won 7-1, clinching the first set.

“Early in the match, Emory came out strong and they were able to dictate playing their preferred, powerful style,” Madara wrote. “However, our team settled down and battled to play points on our own aggressive terms. It came down to trusting our process and our preparation, knowing that we had the ability to make adjustments and compete with grit.”

In the second set, the WashU team pulled away, winning 6-3 to clinch the tournament championship.

“We did have a rocky start on our final match…and there were a lot of tight points, but we managed to pull through and secure the wins, so it was pretty, pretty great,” Bui said.

The tournament win continues an impressive run of play for WashU’s women’s tennis program. Last spring, the Bears made it all the way to the NCAA Division III Elite Eight and finished the season ranked No. 7 by the ITA, their best ranking in program history. Madara was named the ITA’s National Coach of the Year. According to Madara, the ITA Cup win is an indicator of the team’s development over the last few seasons.

“This title is evidence of the hard work our program has been putting in over the last few years[…]That belief in our program’s process and the work we put in each day propelled these two to a national title. While Caitlin and Eleanor’s names are on the trophy, it is a testament to the work that all of our team puts in each day to prepare each other for these moments,” she wrote.

With the momentum building in one of the nation’s hottest tennis programs, Archer, Bui, and WashU women’s tennis are hoping to perform even better than last year this spring.

“I think last year, with each win, the team gained more confidence in our abilities and more belief that we would be able to first make it to NCAAs and then make it to Elite Eight,” Archer said. “I think we’re building more on that this year, and the team has a goal to do even better than we did last year.”