For only the second time since 1990, the University Athletic Association men’s tennis trophy will leave Atlanta. With Sunday’s UAA championship match between No. 14 Washington University and No. 3 Emory University knotted at four match wins apiece, Bears’ senior Gary Parizher won a third-set tiebreak to capture the title and give the Red and Green their second-ever conference championship.

After the Bears opened a 2-1 lead through doubles play with wins by the pairings of senior Adam Putterman and sophomore Ross Putterman at first-flight doubles and Parizher and junior Jeffrey Hirsh at third flight, both by scores of 8-5, the conference rivals split the first four completed singles matches, leaving Wash. U. with a 4-3 advantage. Wash. U. only needed one more win to clinch the title, but as Parizher served trailing 5-6 in the decisive third set, freshman Tyler Kratky lost in a tiebreak at No. 4 singles, and Emory pulled even.

Parizher, who hasn’t dropped a singles match since February, held in his service game to send the No. 5 singles match into a tiebreak of its own, and he dominated the extra session 7-1 to extend his winning streak and halt Emory’s.

“I feel great. That’s incredible,” Parizher said. “I think that’s the one I’m going to remember as my crowning match if I had to pick one.”

In what was both a crowning match for his career and the crowning match for Wash. U. as the new conference champions, Parizher “focused on making first serves” and making his ailing opponent defend the entire court. “I just wanted to move him—you know, I just was really careful to find that balance between being hesitant and tentative and being rash and going for too much,” he said.

“We’ve all been practicing so hard that you’ve got to believe in your teammates,” Adam Putterman said about having to watch from the sidelines as the championship was being decided. “You’re not really that worried—you’re nervous, but you know your teammate’s going to come through.”

Wash. U. and Emory squared off for the UAA title for the eighth straight year, with Emory having gone 6-1 in the previous matches. This year’s crop of Red and Green seniors had fared particularly poorly in the finals, winning no more than two matches in any of the three prior chances at a championship.

“We tried not to carry that baggage into the match with us,” Parizher said. “We really tried to treat it like just another match against a really tough team. But now in retrospect, I think it’s about time that Wash. U. comes through. I think we’ve had a really strong program the last few years, and we knew that we had an excellent shot going into the tournament.”

The Bears began the weekend with a comfortable sweep of Brandeis University. Each doubles pair won by at least two breaks, and Wash. U. won every singles match in straight sets.

The semifinals bout against No. 13 Case Western Reserve University represented an opportunity to exact revenge for a 6-3 loss suffered in February. On that day, Case Western had gained a 2-1 advantage after doubles en route to the win, but in the rematch, Wash. U. pulled out two 8-6 wins in doubles to grab a 2-1 lead entering singles play, wherein both Puttermans, junior Tim Noack, Parizher and senior Kareem Farah all picked up straight-set victories.

With the three victories in the tournament, Wash. U. ran its win streak to 14, the third-longest total in school history, and continued its trend of being undefeated in matches after gaining a lead in doubles play.

Both Puttermans and Parizher finished a perfect 6-0 over the weekend, spanning both singles and doubles. Parizher attributed the team’s ability to maintain a high level of play to its fitness, an advantage that was especially noticeable in his third set.

“In the third set, fitness came into play, and [my opponent] started to have cramps and spasms,” Parizher said. “By the time the tiebreak came around, I knew that I was fitter than he was and that under the pressure, the cramps would get even worse for him…I won the mental fight and the physical fight.”

Two weeks ago, the victorious senior added, “I played three matches in three days, and so that was a good preparation in terms of fitness for this, so that’s good scheduling on the part of Coach Follmer.”

“I think we need to work on fitness,” Adam Putterman said in noting its importance to the team’s success. “I think [it’s a thing] we’re doing well right now but that we want to be doing perfectly come the end of the season.”

Adam Putterman reached a number of impressive milestones in the tournament, most notably 90 career singles victories, a total tied for second all-time in the program’s history, and 150 wins overall, good for seventh all-time. But for the Bears’ top singles player, the team goal that had eluded him for three years was the most memorable event of the weekend.

“To go out with a championship here, a title here, is just a great feeling,” he gushed, “and as much as it feels good individually, it also just feels great to do it for the team and for your teammates.”

A national championship, another team goal that has so far been unattainable for the Bears’ seniors is the next target for this accomplished class; it has reached the Final Four in each of its three years but hasn’t advanced any further. By finally conquering Emory, Wash. U.’s next, more prestigious goal may be in reach.