U Sports tennis enters its banner season as four schools from coast-to-coast compete for the 2025-26 Canadian University Tennis Championships men’s and women’s crown in Montreal.
Université Laval will look to repeat as women’s champions after ending University of Alberta’s five-year reign last summer, while the men’s draw will have a new titlist this year with University of Toronto looking to keep the banner in Ontario.
Here is the monthly university tennis update.
The women’s semifinals kick off the championships on Thursday. Université Laval begin their title defence against Dalhousie University in the day’s first tie, a rematch of last year’s semifinal when the Rouge et Or of Laval scored the sweep over the Tigers.
The winner of the tie will await the outcome of University of Toronto and University of British Columbia. The Toronto Varsity Blues are coming off their third-straight OUA title this year.
Medals will be handed out on Saturday with bronze first, before the final scheduled at noon local time. It will be the first year since 2022-23 that the title will not be contested between Université Laval and University of Alberta.
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The men’s draw is nearly identical to the women’s. University of Toronto and Dalhousie University get Friday’s semifinals underway. Then, University of British Columbia seek a third-straight final when they meet a returning Université Laval, whose last appearance was at the 2023-24 championships when they finished as runner-up to UBC.
Each winner will battle for the title on Sunday following the bronze-medal tie.
Kupres, Rice Earn National Team Championships in NCAA
The NCAA National Team Championships were held in May, with Canadians stepping up for the winning schools in both the women’s and men’s competitions.
Mia Kupres helped Texas A&M to their second national title in three years, beating Auburn 4-1 in the final. Kupres and doubles partner Luciana Perez took their doubles set 7-6 to help the Aggies secure the doubles point. It was a good bounce-back win for Kupres and Perez, who had lost their doubles set in the previous three rounds of the National Championships. They finished the 2025-26 season as the No. 12 doubles team in DI.
Three wins in singles for Texas A&M to go with the doubles point were enough to secure the title. Kupres also played singles in the final, but the match was not completed as the Aggies clinched the title before her match finished. The Edmontonian had been very strong in singles throughout the National Team Championship, winning three of her four completed matches and leading one by a set and a break when it was abandoned. All of her singles matches came in the No. 2 slot.
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Keegan Rice helped the University of Virginia secure the title on the men’s side, scoring a straight-set singles win in the final over University of Texas, Austin’s Kalin Ivanovski 6-1, 6-3. The UVA Cavaliers beat Texas in a squeaker 4-3 to claim the title.
The win in the final capped off an impressive National Championships and season overall for Rice, who went 5-1 at the event with all of his wins coming in the No. 2 spot in straight sets, and was named to the All-Tournament Team. He finished the 2025-26 season with a 35-6 record in singles, finishing as the No. 12 men’s singles player in the NCAA.
With the crowning of the national team champions, the NCAA season has officially come to an end.
Duncan Chan of TCU finished as the highest-ranked Canadian across all disciplines. He was the only Canuck to finish in the Top 10 in both singles and doubles, ending the year at No. 3 in doubles and No. 7 in singles. However, the Frogs lost to the University of Texas in the semis of the National Championships.
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Teah Chavez of Ohio State finished at No. 5 in the women’s singles. She scored Ohio State’s only point in their semifinal loss to Auburn at the National Championships. Mélodie Collard finished as the top Canadian in women’s doubles, coming it at No. 9 for the University of Virginia, who lost in the round of 16.
Feature Photo: Amelie Caron
