Banner Season: Toronto women win back-to-back gold, while Western claims the men’s top spot
Toronto, Ont. – Thanksgiving weekend played host to the 2024-25 OUA Tennis Championships with the medal matches finishing just before dinner.
Women's Finals
Toronto 7 McMaster 0
The No. 1 Toronto Varity Blues defended their title with a 7-0 win over the No. 3 McMaster Marauders. Toronto started strong taking all the doubles matches, to secure the point and put them at the advantage heading into the singles matches. Winnie Choi for Toronto came back from losing the first set to McMaster’s Scarlett Wang to grab the No. 1 spot win. The Varsity blues took over from there, winning the rest of the singles matches, including dominant performances from Kaira Xuan (6-1, 6-1) and Noelle Vanasse Wilbert (6-1, 6-1).
This victory marks the fourth time in five years that the Varsity Blues have been on top of the podium in women’s tennis.
Toronto’s Winnie Choi was named the most valuable player, and her teammate Kaira Xuan took home rookie of the year.
McMaster’s Meghan Mazer was named coach of the year.
Women's Bronze Medal
Western 4 Waterloo 3
Rounding out the tournament on the women's side, the No. 4 Western Mustangs beat the No. 2 Waterloo Warriors to take home the bronze medal. Starting with doubles the Mustangs grabbed two important wins from the teams of Jeslyn Peng and Carley Citron and Mihika Saraswathi and Lillian Pappas to secure the doubles point. In singles, the first two matches went Waterloo's way with Aldiana Lazoja (6-4, 6-0) and Madeleine Alexander (6-3,6-0) coming out on top for the Warriors. Western was able to come back and get the singles points they needed from Citron (6-0, 6-0) and Peng (6-4, 6-2) to claim bronze.
Award Winners (Women)
Player of the Year: Winnie Choi, Toronto
Rookie of the Year: Kaira Xuan, Toronto
Coach of the Year: Meghan Mazer, McMaster
All-stars
Winnie Choi, Toronto
Anastasiya Dyadchenko, Toronto
Scarlett Wang, McMaster
Eva Feddema, McMaster
Chantal Stepanova, Western
Madeleine Alexander, Waterloo
Men's Finals
Western 4 Toronto 2
The No. 2 Western Mustangs beat the No. 1 Toronto Varsity Blues to capture the OUA title. In a rematch of last year’s final, Western was able to walk away victorious this time with the 4-2 team win. The victory puts Western back on top, after winning four straight titles prior to last year’s loss to Toronto.
Liam Drover-Mattinen took home both the most valuable player and rookie of the year honors.
Men's Bronze Medal
York 7 Waterloo 0
On the men’s side the No. 4 York Lions claimed bronze over the No. 3 Waterloo Warriors. The Lions won all three of their doubles matches to take the advantage into the singles. York once again was able to put all their hard work together to sweep the singles matches to end their OUA Championships with a third-place finish.
York’s Ken Crosina was named coach of the year.
Award Winners (Men)
Player of the Year: Liam Drover-Mattinen, Western
Rookie of the Year: Liam Drover-Mattinen, Western
Coach of the Year: Ken Crosina, York
All-stars
Liam Drover-Mattinen, Western
Ray Xie, Western
Tamas Foldi, Toronto
Rassam Yazdi, Toronto
Max Tokarev, York
Pavle Milic, Waterloo