With the championship on the line, the eyes of fan and competitor alike stared out at the court as the final two players decided the OUA title.
Blues veteran Ekaterina Alchits lost the first set, and was down 6-5, facing match point against McGill’s Alison Weinberg at the start of the second. When Alchits remarkably held off the consistent and forceful Weinberg, winning the tiebreaker to take the second set, the Blues cheered while McGill fell silent. In the final game, Weinberg was unable to keep up with Alchits, as she stepped up in the final set to take a 6-3 win, and clinched the gold medal for U of T.
The seventh game was the culmination of a three-game comeback for the Blues. In a final that featured two match points in games six and seven, Women’s Tennis defeated McGill 4-3 to win their third straight Ontario University Athletic title.
“We have a great dynamic,” said Isabel Jarosz, co-captain of the team with Mashda Sidorova. “We all get along great and pull for each other, which I believe was the greatest contributor to our success.”
Facing a tough and resilient McGill squad, Toronto’s last two single players faced critical match points. Joining Alchits in prevailing success was Toronto’s Christina Dykun, who was down 6-5 against Alex Myagkova. Facing match point in the third set, Dykun not only saved the point, but also went on to win the tiebreaker to even out the teams at three points apiece.
Before the Blues’ final two singles players could complete an epic, nail-biting comeback, the Blues found themselves down 3-0 in a best of seven series against McGill. Down to their last game against the Martlets, the Blues turned to Jarosz, U of T’s number-one singles player and the best player in the OUA.
With an undefeated singles streak in league play spanning three years, the Blues’ OUA all-star came off the court victorious, posting a 6-2, 6-1 triumph over McGill’s Ceren Baysan.
“Isabel is such a solid player from all areas of the court,” said coach Ryan Neale, an assistant to head coach Nabil Tadros. “She was in complete control the entire match.”
On the other court was Blue’s Natalia Lech, playing in the number-two singles position. After winning the first set 6-2, Lech found herself down 5-2 and facing set point. The team’s rookie of the year brought herself under control, and won the next five sets to take the match 7-5, bringing Toronto to two games to three, one away from tying it.
The championship finals, held on September 30 at Western’s Tennis Centre in London, Ontario, featured a match-up of the division’s top two seeded teams. In a previous meeting, the Martlets posted the Blues’ only loss of the season, outlasting U of T 4-3 on September 16.
The Blues quickly dispatched York 6-1 in the semi-finals. Heading into the finals against the team that de-seated them during league play, the Blues came in undaunted.
“With such a huge win over York, we went into the finals quite confident, even though we were facing McGill again,” Jarosz said.
What resulted was a climatic victory by a champion who refused to be denied. The memory of this title, the seventh overall for the team, will be savoured for years to come.
