Queen’s Men’s Tennis will be serving at nationals.
From Oct. 9-11, the Gaels competed in the OUA Championships, hosted by the Waterloo Warriors but played at the Mayfair Toronto East. Both the men’s and woman’s tennis teams ended up winning silver.
Both teams were looking to find the podium for the second straight year, as the men won bronze and the women won silver last year. And find it they did.
The OUA Championship is made up of eight ranked teams who play both singles and doubles matches, with points earned based on the outcome of each match. The first team to four points wins the team head-to-head match and moves on to the next round.
The men’s team, made up of 10 players, won their first match against the York Lions in dramatic fashion, battling back after having dropped their doubles matches early on. This set up a semifinal game versus the University of Ottawa GeeGees.
During the semifinal match, it came down to the final singles game, where men’s captain Ben Chernin, HealthSci ’28, secured the victory and the national’s berth as the OUA had two eligibility spots this year.
The team ultimately dropped their finals match to the Western Mustangs, who took their fourth OUA Championship in six years.
For the women, they cruised through the first round against McGill, winning by a score of 4-1. A thrilling match versus Western saw the final doubles game go to an 8-7 tiebreaker but ultimately a win that sent the Gaels to the finals.
The Gaels matched up with the three-time defending champion Toronto Varsity Blues. They Gaels pushed them to the brink but were unable to follow through and narrowly lost by a score of 4-3.
To discuss the OUA Championships, The Journal sat down with Queen’s Tennis Head Coach Tony Roth.
In his interview, Roth touched on the strong competition in the league.
“The calibre of tennis is very high,” Roth said. “If we were in the United States, this was a division one lineup.”
Roth also explained how important that semifinal win over the GeeGees was for the men.
“Ottawa finished second last year and they basically had a completely returning team,” Roth said. “Our team was much younger, lots of rookies, and they just played and competed with so much heart.”
For the women, Roth talked about how devasting it was dropping the OUA Championship to University of Toronto.
“In that moment it was really difficult to take. U of T has been the winning team for several years in a row, so we’ve had our sights on them,” Roth said. “Everyone competed so well, and we were up three points to one, so it was pretty heartbreaking for sure.”
While the OUA season has come to an end, the winter season is just beginning for Queen’s Tennis, a season that Roth has been instrumental in organizing.
“We organized a winter league where a lot of universities are competing, that is going to expand throughout the school year,” Roth said. “Everybody is committed and determined to continue to improve on the tennis program, which is really exciting.”
The Gaels will continue to compete in their winter league, but their sights will be set on nationals held in Montreal in late May.
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