While the calendar year is wrapping up, the academic year is only approaching its midway point. For Canadian players competing in the NCAA, focus will shift to the team season in January after the fall swing of tournaments. One Canuck in particular will look to bring his great individual form into the new year and help his school reclaim the national title.
Here is the monthly university tennis update and 2025 year-in-review.
Duncan Chan of TCU will be a player to watch when it comes to the 2026 NCAA team season. The Markhamite came flying out of the gate to start the 2025-26 season, opening up on a nine-match winning streak. He currently holds a 12-2 record in singles since September.
The hot start was highlighted by a title at the Division I Battle in the Bay Classic, one of many collegiate tournaments played in the fall, hosted by the University of California, Berkeley. Chan was unseeded and lost the opening set of his first-round match but did not drop another on his way to the title, fighting back to win that match before reeling off four straight-set wins in a row. That included back-to-back wins over the top two seeds in the semis and final.
Photo : TCU
He will wrap up 2025 ranked sixth in DI men’s singles, the highest ranking by a Canadian man in years. He is also ranked 23rd in doubles with a 4-0 record.
When it comes to awards, the NCAA handed out their honours in the spring at the end of the academic year, based on results from September 2024 through May 2025.
Melodie Collard of Virginia was the most-decorated Canadian for the 2024-25 season. As the national doubles champion in November 2024, she was a Division I All-Star and All-American in doubles.
Four other Canadian women were named All-Americans in May: Jessica Alsola of California, Cadence Brace of LSU, Teah Chavez of Ohio State, and Kayla Cross of LSU. Chavez made the list for singles while Alsola and Cross both earned it for doubles. Brace was the lone Canadian to be named an All-American in both singles and doubles.
Chavez is the top-ranked Canadian woman at season’s end in singles, coming in at No. 14. Canada is very well represented in the women’s doubles rankings, with four Canucks in the Top 20, two of them in the Top 10. Collard and fellow Virginia Cavalier Annabelle Xu are ranked ninth and tenth respectively in the final rankings of the year. Yale’s Orly Ogilvy is just behind them at No. 12, with Emma Dong of Georgia coming in at No. 18 in her freshman year.
Alas, there were no national titles for Canadians south of the border in 2025, although there were some close calls.
In the spring’s NCAA team championships, Chan’s TCU and Mia Kupres’s Texas A&M both reached the finals, looking for back-to-back titles, but neither squad was able to repeat. At the national individual championships in November, Ogilvy and Xu delivered the best results by Canadians, both reaching the women’s doubles quarter-finals.
Click here to view all the Canadian rankings in the NCAA.
U Sports
The men’s and women’s university tennis seasons on this side of the border saw very different storylines in 2025.
For the women, it was all about the Université Laval Rouge et Or, who overcame all challengers both at the provincial and national level. In Quebec’s University League, the Rouge et Or went 10-0 in the regular season, only surrendering five total points out of a possible 70, and then swept the provincial championships with back-to-back 4-0 wins in the semis over Concordia and final over the Université de Montréal.
Photo : Rouge et Or Tennis
Despite their dominance in Quebec, the Rouge et Or faced a heavy task at the national championships, where they faced off in the final against five-time defending national champions University of Alberta. But Laval was able to end the Pandas’ reign, sneaking out a tight 4-3 win to seal the national title.
On the men’s side, the wealth was spread a little more.
After years of dominating in Ontario, Western University rolled into the national championships looking for their first win in nearly a decade. The Mustangs managed to end their drought with a 4-1 win over the University of British Columbia.
However, despite the national title, Western was then unable to defend it’s home turf at the Ontario championships in October. The Mustangs were upset by the University of Ottawa 4-3 in the semifinals.
Photo : University of Toronto
The University of Toronto ended up reclaiming the men’s provincial title by beating Ottawa 4-3 in the final. Their victory completed a sweep for U of T as the women’s squad successfully defended their title.
CLICK HERE for the recap of the 2025 national university tennis championships.
For more detailed information on Canadian university tennis results in 2025, check out the monthly updates (Brackets indicate major championships covered that month):
- February
- March
- April (Quebec provincial championships)
- May (NCAA national team championships)
- September
- October (Ontario provincial championships)
- November (NCAA national individual championships)
Feature Photo : TCU
