The Saint Louis University women’s tennis team capped off a strong finish to the season with a come-from-behind victory over the No. 5 University of Massachusetts this past Sunday, April 19. The victory claimed a fifth place finish in the Atlantic 10 conference tournament for the Billikens – making it their best finish in four years of A-10 membership.
The tournament was played in Monroeville, Pa. outside Pittsburgh.
The No. 8 seed Billikens went 3-1 overall in the tournament this past weekend, bringing their season record to an impressive 13-11. Their only loss in the tournament came in their second match against the eventual champions, a 4-0 defeat by the Richmond Spiders.
SLU dished out a pair of its own 4-0 victories however; with wins over both 9-seeded George Washington and 4-seeded Rhode Island. The victory over Rhode Island set up the fifth place match against the Minutewomen of UMass.
The Billikens split the first four singles matches and dropped the doubles point to fall behind 2-3 against UMass. This set up the team for a great comeback; led by No.1 singles player, sophomore Hailee Elmore, and No. 4 singles player, senior Joe Becker.
Elmore won her match in dramatic style, with a 12-10 victory in a super-tiebreaker, to bring the Billikens and Minutewomen back to even at 3-3.
The outcome of the match depended on Becker’s play.
“It was the best moment of my career at SLU. Some really awesome tennis,” the senior said.
“I knew I had to win, and I had my whole team, and even my dad from Germany watching. I’m glad we were able to come out on top.”
Becker won the decisive match in a super-tiebreaker as well; beating Massachusetts’ Kaitlyn Carpenter 5-7, 6-3, 10-3. Becker’s victory was an exciting end to a great career.
Head Coach Jonathan Zych said he was proud of his team, and called Elmore and Becker’s performances heroic.
“I was really confident with those two being the last ones out on the court,” Zych said.
Becker finished her SLU career ranked 11th in singles victories with 53.
The SLU men’s tennis team will head to Pennsylvania on Thursday, April 23, in order to prepare for their run in the conference tournament.
The team, which finished the regular season 13-5, expects to do well in the tournament. The No.3 Billikens are only ranked behind No. 1 George Washington (11-7) and No.2 Xavier. The 3-seed is the highest ever for a Billikens’ tennis team in the A-10 tournament.
“We have a lot of respect for both George Washington and Xavier, but we are coming into this tournament fully confident in our abilities to win and bring home some hardware,” junior James MacArthur said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of our confidence just from seeing the girls’ performance and the way they have come up big at the end of the season.”
The men’s team has been preparing for the tournament by keeping practices intense and competitive.
“We’ve been getting after each other a lot in practice, trying to keep that match feeling as much as possible,” MacArthur said.
They also played a scrimmage match against neighboring Washington University.
Play begins Friday evening for the Billikens as they will take on the winner of No.6 Temple and No.11 LaSalle.
A championship would mean a first-ever birth in the NCAA men’s national championship tournament.
