Elated shouts broke the sudden silence that immediately followed the final match. A hard-fought victory had been earned on foreign soil, prompting an emotional outburst from the victors and gloomy looks from the vanquished foes.
On October 1 the women’s tennis team celebrated their second consecutive Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship at the University of Western Ontario. The team cruised to a 6-1 victory over York in the semifinals, then slugged out a 5-2 decision over McGill to retain the crown it won last year.
“It is an amazing feeling to win a championship,” said head coach Nabil Tadros. “You leave with a sense that the job is done.”
The Blues were nervous about facing an intimidating McGill team in the finals, but used the nervous energy to return serves and send smashes into an empty area of the court. Many on the U of T side considered the Martlets the most difficult opponent they had faced this year.
“McGill was the toughest team to play against, and some of us are nervous playing any opponent, so playing McGill in the finals may have made us a bit more nervous than usual,” said rookie Tina Petkova. “But it only made us play better.”
Second-year co-captain Masha Sidorova commented on the pressure of playing McGill in the final and the difficulty of trying to repeat as OUA champions: “The pressure was more apparent this year, but as soon as the girls stepped on the court it vanished. McGill girls are always very intense when they play, but we were able to carry on at our own pace and win U of T style.”
A combination of singles and doubles success led to the downfall of the Martlets, who looked poised to win the first of seven final matches, until the pair of Qiuyan Tian and Teresa Schirripa were able to overcome a 6-5 match point and beat their McGill counterparts 9-7 in a tiebreaker in doubles action. That comeback gave the team momentum going into the first singles match, which was on deck.
U of T’s Isabel Jarosz was too strong for all-star Cheren Baysan in the second match of the day. Jarosz did not waste time in dispatching Baysan 6-2, 6-3 in straight sets.
“Isabel is the strongest female player in the OUA,” remarked Tadros. “She has not lost a match in two years. In fact, she has not lost a set in two years.”
The Blues won four singles matches and two doubles matches in their triumph over McGill, while the Martlets could only win one in each category. Veterans and rookies alike contributed points to the final tally.
“Some of our strongest players from last year returned this year, but we wouldn’t have won without a few new additions to the team,” said veteran Ekaterina Alchits. “We knew that it was going to be a close match and every game mattered.”
Tadros also added his feelings on the new batch of talent that emerged this season: “When rookies like Tina (Petkova) showed up for the tryouts I knew we had good players who would really better our chances of doing well. Hopefully they will be here for three or four more years.”
Before winning last year, the women’s team hadn’t won an OUA tennis championship since 1984.
The Blues did not fare as well in the men’s draw. The team finished in fourth place after a 6-1 loss to York in the semifinal and a 4-3 loss to Waterloo in the bronze medal game. Stan Szczpanski had the only victory against the Lions and was responsible for much of the success against Waterloo.
The OUA season may be over now, but that doesn’t mean members of the tennis teams will be parting.
Sidorova made it known that quite the opposite is true: “We stay a family even after the season is over, which is the best part of playing tennis at U of T.”
