University tennis is back in Quebec. The University league got underway at the beginning of November in La Belle Province with the reigning champions in the men’s and women's divisions getting off to polar opposite starts in their title defences.
Here is the monthly university tennis update.
The Rouge et Or of Université Laval women’s team have picked up where they left off. Having won the Quebec championships in April and then securing the national title in August, they have roared out of the gate to start the new season, winning their first two ties to sit atop the women’s division, with one other tie to be completed.
The defending champions opened up the season with a 5-2 win over the Université de Montréal Carabins and followed it up with a 7-0 sweep of the Vert et Or of Université Sherbrooke.
Concordia and the Université de Montréal sit tied in points with the Rouge et Or, although both have completed one more tie and have 2-1 records, while Laval had one tie level at 3-3 against McGill when it was paused.
Four of the six teams in the men’s division currently sit tied with four points each, having each won two ties: Université Laval, Université de Montréal, Concordia, and McGill. The first three schools listed have all won two ties but lost one, while McGill has only completed two, winning both.
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The defending provincial champions, the Patriotes of the Université du Quebec à Trois-Rivières, are off to a slow start. They lost each of their first two matchups to McGill and Concordia.
NCAA
It was a busy month south of the border as the final stages of qualifying for the NCAA individual national championships took place. The sectional championships served as the main opportunity for collegiate players to book their tickets to the big dance at the end of November.
Several Canadians had already qualified for the individual championships based on their performances in October’s regional championships. In order to qualify through sectionals, players needed to reach either the singles semifinals or the doubles final. There were also playoffs for a couple of spots. Four Canadians delivered strong enough performances in their respective sectional championships to qualify for the individual championships.
In the west, Reece Carter, Alexia Jacobs, and Sasha Rozin all made deep enough runs to qualify. Rozin of Arizona punched his ticket in singles by reaching the semifinals, as did Carter of Washington on the women’s side. Carter nearly qualified for both singles and doubles, but lost to her compatriot from UC Santa Barbara, Jacobs, in the semifinals.
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Emma Dong of Georgia qualified in doubles by reaching the South section final. Mia Kupres of Texas A&M had already qualified based on her performance at the Texas Regional Championships, but reached the Central section doubles final for good measure.
Another mode of qualifying for the individual national championships was by landing on the podium at the ITA Conference Masters event. Melodie Collard of Virginia, the defending women’s doubles national champion, booked her ticket that way, reaching the doubles final with Vivian Yang.
At the National Championships last week, the best performances by Canadians came in the women’s doubles, where Orly Ogilvy of Yale and Annabelle Xu of the University of Virginia each reached the quarter-finals with their respective partners. Collard’s title defence ended in the second round.
In singles, Keegan Rice of Virginia reached the third round of the men’s singles. On the women’s side, Kupres and Carter both got to round two.
Click here to view all the Canadian rankings in the NCAA.
Feature Photo : Patriotes de Tennis de l'UQTR
