Junior Collin Scruggs plays in the UAA Championships. (Bri Nitsberg | Student Life)

This past weekend, the No. 10 women’s and No. 32 men’s team took on the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships in Altamonte Springs, Florida, seeking to bring conference glories to WashU. The men last won in 2014, and the women’s program is still seeking its first win.

In a classic tournament style bracket, the 13-8 men’s team entered as the sixth seed and ultimately finished in fifth place. The 13-7 women’s team were the fourth seed and placed third, losing in the semifinals with the narrowest of margins against eventual champions, No. 1 University of Chicago.

Women’s team

The women’s team got out to a strong start in their quarterfinal matchup against No. 17 Case Western, recording a 5-0 shutout against the Spartans. The No. 1-ranked partnership of sophomore Eleanor Archer and first-year Caitlin Bui, which has been formidable all season, won its match 6-2. Junior Eliana Hanna and first-year Ally Lin also won 6-2 at the third doubles court, securing the doubles point for the Bears.

In the singles portion, needing three more points for the victory, the team continued to win. Bui, Lin, junior Amber Edmonds, and junior Nina Moravek were all victorious in straight sets. 

In the semifinals, the Bears faced a tough opponent under the highest pressure: UChicago. Earlier in the season, on April 12, the Bears lost to the Maroons 1-6. Only two weeks later, the Bears tried to pull off a statement win but lost by the slimmest of margins, 3-4. This time around, the women claimed the doubles point after previously dropping it. Edmonds and first-year Sam Slowik, as well as Hanna and Lin, won their two sets to grab the point. 

In singles, Hanna continued the momentum for the team by defeating UChicago’s Nicole Geller 6-0, 6-3. The Maroons would not go down easily, however, as Moravek and Edmonds both fell in straight sets to tie the match at 2-2. Lin then won the Bears’ third point, winning 6-3, 6-4. Bui fell at the No. 2 singles spot, 3-6, 4-6, setting up a winner-take-all final match with Archer and UChicago’s Erika Ekstrand. Ekstrand took the first set 6-4, but Archer responded with her own 6-4 in the second set. In the final set to determine who goes to the UAA final, Archer narrowly lost 4-6.

Speaking about the heartbreaking loss, head coach Paige Madara reiterated her team’s improvement since their last matchup against UChicago.

“I was proud of how the team brought a determined, gritty attitude to our match against Chicago,” she wrote in a statement to Student Life. “We saw them a few weeks ago in the regular season and took a lot of lessons from that match. This time, I thought we responded well to the different scenarios that happened mid-match, and our entire team left everything on the court with their competitive fight.”

The Bears had one final match for third place against No. 9 Carnegie Mellon, where they swept the Tartans 4-0. Archer and Bui as well as Hanna and Lin won both of their doubles matches, grabbing the doubles point. Hanna also won her singles match 6-3, 6-1, followed by Moravek who won 6-4, 6-4. Securing the team’s third place finish was Bui, who came back to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

The team has now finished third-place at conference championships in back-to-back seasons, beating Carnegie Mellon in 2024. 

“Overall, this team has really learned what it takes to compete with the top teams in the country,” Madara wrote. “We played 10 matches against the top 15 teams in the country in the regular season, so we were really battle-tested heading into UAAs and now the postseason.”   

Men’s team

The men’s team started their conference finals with a quarterfinal defeat to No. 5 Emory University, 1-4. The team began the match well, taking the doubles point via wins from seniors Stefan Hester and Pato Garcia Muriel as well as juniors Colin Scruggs and Eric Kuo. However, the Bears could not win any of their singles matches, and the Eagles won four straight to progress to the semifinals.

Senior John Fakouri lost in straight sets 3-6, 1-6 followed by Kuo who lost 1-6, 3-6. Hester came the closest in singles, taking the first set 6-3 but losing the second set in a tiebreak 5-7 and the third set 2-6. Scruggs’s three-set defeat at Court 1 finalized the loss for the Bears.

The next day, the Bears bounced back to sweep Brandeis University to book a spot in the fifth-place match. Senior Scott Yamamoto and first-year Drew Koval, and Scruggs and Kuo won the doubles point for the team. Looking for three more points to secure the victory, both first-year Avi Mahajan and sophomore Nathan Tam won in straight sets. Hester won the clinching fourth point, dropping the first set 5-7 but storming back in the final two sets 6-2, 6-2.

The men’s final match was against No. 24 Carnegie Mellon, and the Bears won 4-2 to finish fifth place at the UAA Championships. The doubles point came with two 6-3 victories from the partnerships of Hester and Garcia Muriel as well as Yamamoto and Koval. 

In singles, the Bears battled through four three-set matches before winning the match 4-1. Hester got the team’s second point 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. After Scruggs lost at the first singles court, Kuo came back to get the team’s third point 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Yamamoto clinched the final, winning the match for the Bears 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to finish in fifth place.

This was the team’s weakest showing in the past few years at the UAA championships, after a string of third and fourth place finishes and a highlighted second place finish in 2023.

Both teams await their fate for the NCAA Division III Championships, both as a group and individually. The selection show will take place on Monday, May 5, with individual qualifiers being announced two days later.