The Washington University women’s tennis team rallied to take four of six singles matches to secure third at the 2011 University Athletic Association Championships held in the St. Louis Metro Area over the weekend.

“It was our best weekend yet, and this is what we’ve been working for,” head coach Kelly Stahlhuth said. “We’ve been trying to get stronger every week, and [the players] did it.”

No. 11 Carnegie Mellon University took a 2-1 lead over the No. 15 Bears through doubles play on Sunday, but the Red and Green fought back in singles until freshman Evelyn Qin defeated Courtney Chin 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) at second singles to complete the comeback and secure the 5-4 victory.

“It was amazing,” Qin said. “I really wanted to finish strong for our team especially since I hadn’t won a match this weekend, and I was thinking about our upperclassmen and how it was our last UAA match for them, so I wanted to do really well for them.”

Down 5-6 in the second set, Qin leveled the match at 6-6 before winning the tiebreaker.

“It was nice. It’s the first time we’ve beaten Carnegie since I’ve been here. Evelyn has been playing phenomenally, and we knew she could do it,” said Stahlhuth, who has coached the team since the 2005-2006 season.

Sophomore Kate Klein, freshman Theresa Petraskova and sophomore Paige Madara also collected the singles victories for Wash. U. at third, fourth and sixth singles, respectively. Madara and freshman Corinne Rauck also won 8-4 at third doubles.

After winning its opening match of the tournament against the University of Rochester on Friday, the Bears faced No. 3 Emory University on Saturday. The Eagles shut out Wash. U. 6-0 to advance to the UAA title match. Agaisnt the Eagles, the Bears lost by at least four games in every completed match and only won sets at fourth and fifth singles in matches that were not completed.

Tournament play opened for Wash. U. on Friday against Rochester, and a strong start from the Bears clinched the match halfway through singles play.

Rauck and Madara got the Bears on the scoreboard early with an 8-2 win at third doubles, and Petraskova and senior Elise Sambol gave the team a crucial 2-1 lead by taking second doubles 8-2. Madara, Petraskova and Klein then won their singles matches in straight sets to win the match for the Red and Green, though the Yellowjackets would win at first, second and fifth singles.

Inclement weather relocated all matches from the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park to the Kings Point Sports Club in Belleville, Ill., and the Sunset Tennis Center in Sappington, Mo. The Bears played both their first- and third-round matches at Kings Point.

While Emory, the eventual conference champions, received the automatic bid into the NCAA Championships, Chicago, Wash. U. and Carnegie are in line to receive at-large bids to the tournament as teams ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Top 25.

“[The UAA has] usually gotten in four. There’s always a few teams left out. I think a few of our solid wins have helped, especially this late in the year, but we just have to hope they write our names down and hopefully they will,” Stahlhuth said.

Washington University (15-5) concludes its regular season with a match at No. 17 DePauw University on May 7. The Bears defeated the Tigers 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Midwest Invitational in Madison, Wis., on April 8.

“Against DePauw, we [have] to stay strong against them since we already played them once earlier in the season and keep up our toughness and competitiveness,” Qin said. “The same goes for nationals.”