At the end of March, Quebec held its conference tennis championships at IGA Stadium in Montreal. The results were a bit of a mix, with the favourites taking home the women’s title while there was a minor upset on the men’s side.
Here is the monthly university tennis update.
Starting with the women, the Université Laval Rouge et Or completed their dominant season by sweeping their way to the title.
The women’s squad were the heavy favourites heading into the championships, having finished the regular season atop the standings with a 10-0 record in overall matchups and an astounding 65-5 record in matches.
They did not take their foot off the gas at the provincial championships, winning the title without losing a match. The Rouge et Or defeated Concordia 4-0 in the semifinals before capping off their season with another 4-0 win over the Université de Montréal in the final.
Marie-Laurence Denis, Minnie Kim, and Émilie Corbett all picked up singles wins for the Rouge et Or in the final and each contributed to the doubles. Corbett and Denis teamed up to pick up one set, while Kim and Érica Di Battista scored the other. Overall, the Rouge et Or lost just one set in the final.
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The Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières denied Université Laval of a double victory by narrowly stealing the men’s title. The Patriotes from Trois-Rivères edged out the top-seeded Rouge et Or 4-3 in the final.
A finals meeting between those two schools came as little surprise as they were the top two teams in the regular season with quite a bit of daylight between them and the other five schools. Université Laval finished first, four points ahead of Trois-Rivières who themselves were six points up on third-place Concordia.
Photo : Patriotes UQTR/Joey Richard
But with seven teams in the provincial championships, only the first-place Rouge et Or got a bye. Still, the Patriotes were undeterred, beating École de technologie supérieur 4-1 in the quarter-finals and sweeping Concordia 4-0 in the semis before taking down Université Laval for the title.
Jonathan Bédard, Assil Boussayri, El Yazid Boussayri, and Sacha Héroux secured the win for the Patriotes with singles victories. Laval took the doubles and got a pair of singles wins, but only managed to push one of the other singles matches to a third set.
NCAA – Canadian Singles Players on the Rise
To start the 2025 NCAA season, doubles was primarily the highlight for Canadians playing collegiate tennis in the United States. But over the last month, a few Canucks have begun posting some impressive results in singles.
Cadence Brace leads the way. A month ago, the LSU Tiger sat just outside the Top 40 in the Division I women’s singles rankings. Since then, she’s gone 5-1 in singles play (with three matches incomplete) and has seen her ranking jump 30 spots. As of the most recent rankings from April 22, she is up to No. 12 in the nation.
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There are currently three Canadians inside the Top 30 of the women’s singles rankings. Joining Brace are No. 28 Scarlett Nicholson of Georgia Tech, who is on a nine-match winning streak dating back to Mar. 1, and No. 30 Teah Chavez of Ohio State, who has won 13 of her 14 singles matches in 2025 (with 10 abandoned).
Cadence Brace. Photo : Gianpaolo Nicolosi/LSU
As has been the case for a while, Canadians are continuing to excel in doubles.
Melodie Collard still holds the No. 1 doubles ranking alongside Elaine Chervinksy for the University of Virginia. The pair have won six of their last seven matches (with two abandoned) and have held the top spot in the rankings uninterrupted since Feb. 5.
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Jessica Alsola of Berkeley is not far behind, currently ranked No. 4 with partner Mao Mushika. Alsola is has won 11 of her last 12 completed doubles matches, including a win over the top-ranked Collard and Chervinsky on Mar. 21.
The all-Canadian tandem of Brace and Kayla Cross are also holding strong in the Top 10 at No. 7.
Click here to view all the Canadian rankings in the NCAA.
Feature Photo : Université Laval Rouge et Or
