This past week, the No. 9 women’s and No. 12 men’s WashU tennis teams traveled to Southern California and San Antonio, Texas, for their respective Spring Break trips.

Men’s Tennis

The men’s team’s trip began with a stern test on Sunday, March 9, when they faced the No. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags in Claremont, California. The Bears eventually lost by a score of 2-5.

All three doubles matchups would go the way of the Stags, who boast a trio of top-25 nationally-ranked doubles pairings. WashU seniors Pato Garcia Muriel and Stefan Hester fell 2-6 to the No. 23 Stags duo of Advik Mareedu and Josh Kim. Juniors Case Fagan and Colin Fox lost 1-6 to the No. 9 pairing of Settles and Vu, and senior Scott Yamamoto and first-year Drew Koval came closest but lost 4-6 to No. 10 Robinson and Pham.

In the singles portion, the two Bears victories came from junior Eric Kuo, who won 6-3, 6-1, and Hester, who won 6-2, 6-2. 

Hester spoke about the tough first contest against Claremont, and the positives that came out of the singles matchups despite dropping the doubles matchups.

“It started off a little rough because they swept doubles, and I think in general, we came out a little flat in doubles,” he said. “With a team like that, winning indoor nationals, every match was going to be tough. But, I think overall in singles, we had a good showing there and good energy across the courts. And we had two matches that went three sets that if they’d gone our way, we could’ve won that match.”

The next two scheduled matches, against Concordia University Irvine and Wabash College on March 11 in Irvine, California, were both canceled due to rain.

The Bears’ next action came on Wednesday, March 12, when they traveled out to the desert to play No. 8 Bowdoin College in Cathedral City, California. This was a tightly contested affair, with the Bears just falling by a final score of 3-4, and four of six singles matches needing a decisive third set. 

This time around, the Bears turned around their doubles fortune, winning two of three for the doubles point. The pairing of Fox and Fagan just lost 4-6, but Hester and Garcia Muriel and Koval and Yamamoto wrapped up doubles play by winning 6-4 and 6-3, respectively.

Going into singles play with a 1-0 lead, the Bears were only able to pick up two of the six singles matches. Hester and the team’s top-ranked singles player, junior Colin Scruggs, were the two victorious. Hester won 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and Scruggs won another close three-set affair 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. Koval ultimately came up short against Bowdoin’s Andrew Mendelson 6-1, 4-6, 5-7, as did WashU senior John Fakouri 6-3, 1-6, 2-6. 

The team’s last match was against No. 8 Swarthmore University, which they lost 2-5. The Bears dropped two of three doubles sets, unable to secure the doubles point. Fagan and Kuo grabbed the team’s two wins in singles, but it would not be enough as they dropped three of the four other matches in straight sets. 

Despite a tough week in terms of scorelines, Hester and the team see these matches against top-10 opponents as valuable experiences.

“That’s something that Coach has talked about is we could play a bunch of lower ranked teams and win 7-0, but that’s not as valuable,” he said. “You don’t learn as much about what you need to improve, what you need to work on both as a team and individually in your game until you play those higher ranked teams that expose some of the weaknesses.”

The men’s team will face North Central College next, on Saturday, March 22, at home at the Tao Tennis Center. 

Women’s Tennis

The women’s team played four matches over break, winning two and losing two against quality, ranked opponents.

Head coach Paige Madara stressed the importance of consistently playing teams that challenge the Bears.

“We always aim to schedule the toughest competition possible, knowing that our conference and the NCAA tournament will all be strong, ranked opponents,” she wrote in a statement to Student Life. “By competing against that level all season, we are better prepared for the tests at the end of our season. We always talk about improving through each segment of the season, knowing we will be playing the strongest competition at the end of the spring.” 

WashU started the weekend with a doubleheader on March 9, taking on No. 12 MIT in the morning and No. 23 Gustavus Adolphus College in the afternoon. 

Against MIT, WashU fell by an ultimate score of 2-5 in a quality clash against what was their highest-ranked opponent of the week. The doubles point was claimed by MIT because the No. 1 ranked partnership of sophomore Eleanor Archer and first-year Caitlin Bui and junior partners Amber Edmonds and Eliana Hanna both lost, meaning the close tiebreaking win from first-years Chloe Brissett and Sam Slowik was not enough.    

In singles play, Archer won 6-4, 6-3 at the No. 1 singles slot, while Hanna also won 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 to capture the Bears’ two points. The four other matches featured MIT straight-set victories, leading to the Bears’ first loss against MIT, albeit in only their third matchup.

Following a quick turnaround, the Bears then did not drop a single set as they went on to beat No. 23 Gustavus Adolphus 7-0. The team swept the three doubles matches: the pairing of Archer and Bui beat the No. 12 Gustavus duo of Elvestrom and De Bruijn 6-3, Hanna and Edmonds won 7-5, and Slowik and Brissett won 6-2. 

The Bears then impressively won all six singles matches in straight sets. Archer, Bui, and Hanna wrapped up the No. 1, 2, and 3 singles games. Then, first-year Ally Lin won 6-2, 6-1, sophomore Emily Chiasson won 6-2, 6-2, and Slowik wrapped up a flawless victory, winning 6-1, 6-3. 

With Lin, Slowik, Brissett, and Bui all getting consistent playing time, the Bears boast four first-years that are regularly contributing to the team.

“In our sport, first-years have to adjust quickly to learning how their individual play impacts our overall team success,” Madara wrote. “Coming into the spring, we knew they were capable of contributing to our line-up and we are seeing that now in our dual matches as they are settling more into team tennis.”

Two days later, on Tuesday, March11, the Bears pulled off another clean sweep, this time against No. 33 Skidmore College. The same three doubles partnerships as before all won their matches, grabbing the doubles point. In singles play, five of six matches ended in two sets, with Archer still coming back in three sets to wrap up a consecutive perfect victory.

The final matchup came Thursday, March 21, against No. 21 Bowdoin College, which the Bears just lost 3-4. Once more, the team swept all three doubles sets for a strong start. However, they were then only able to pick up two singles wins, with three of their four losses coming in three sets. Bui and Lin’s two straight-set wins to kick things off were not followed by another victory.

The women’s team next faces Carnegie Mellon University and Emory University on Saturday, March 29, and Sunday, March 30, respectively, in Atlanta, Georgia.