The DePaul women’s tennis team’s season has come to an end after the Blue Demons fell short of the title in a 4-0 loss to Xavier in the Big East championship final on Sunday.

Despite a dominant win against the No. 1 seed St. John’s in the semifinals, DePaul was unable to defeat Xavier in the finals for the second year in a row.

The season was full of ups and downs, starting with a 4-0 win against Bradley in January and ending with a 4-3 loss to Xavier. The team finished the regular season with an overall record of 7-8 and a conference record of 4-3.

“There’s been a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but as a team, we’ve all grown together a lot,” sophomore Kaya Rand said. “Every match that we go through, it makes us even better and it just prepares us for the Big East and what comes after that. We’ve just grown a lot this entire year.”

To prepare for the tournament, the team focused on every aspect of their game and the best ways to hold off their opponent’s offense, while keeping up with them in the Carolina heat. Additionally, the team used their spring break to travel to California, where they mixed fun with practice.

“Singles, doubles, match practice, we’ve been drinking a lot of water because it’s going to be hot in South Carolina, so we’ve been trying to hydrate ourselves,” freshman Eleanor Nobbs said. “We practiced outside a few times last week, so things like that. And lots of fitness and conditioning to get us prepared for long matches in the heat.”

Last season, the Blue Demons defeated Butler and Villanova at the Big East championship before falling to Xavier in the final match and history repeated itself this year.

As the No. 4 seed, DePaul faced off against No. 5 Butler in the first round again on Friday and defeated the Bulldogs 4-2.

The match kicked off with doubles victories from graduate student Marija Jovicic and freshman Hristina Djokic and junior Lenka Antonijevic and sophomore Yuliya Kizelbasheva that secured DePaul a point. Antonijevic, Djokic and junior Valentina Martin then followed with singles wins that secured the Blue Demons a win over Butler to move on to the semifinals.

In the semifinals, the Blue Demons took on No. 1 seed St. John’s. DePaul lost to St. John’s in the regular season and St. John’s was coming off 13 straight wins, but it was the Blue Demons who were victorious this time in a 4-2 victory on Saturday.

Doubles pairs Antonijevic and Kizelbasheva and Martin and Nobbs set the pace with victories to start the match, and then singles wins by Kizelbasheva and Jovicic propelled DePaul forward.

The match came down to Nobbs, who was trailing in her singles match but came back to win 7-5 and clinch the victory for the Blue Demons against the dominant St. John’s team.

“I think what’s great about the Big East is also its biggest challenge,” head coach Marisa Arce said. “I think any team could come and win this tournament. Every team is beatable but every team is good so we have to be on it, we can’t take anyone too lightly and we need all six doubles players and all six singles players to be ready to go physically, mentally and emotionally.”

The tournament came down to the finals on Sunday, where DePaul took on Xavier in the final. The Blue Demons have been battling Xavier in the Big East championship for years. In 2019, DePaul defeated them in the final but last year, it was Xavier who was victorious over DePaul.

And this year, it was Xavier who came out on top as the Blue Demons fell short of the title in a 4-0 loss.

Xavier was dominant from the very beginning and swiftly defeated the doubles teams. Afterwards, the singles players struggled to keep up to Xavier’s strong play and the Blue Demons were unable to come out on top and saw their season end.

“There’s been a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but as a team, we’ve all grown together a lot,” sophomore Kaya Rand said. “Every match that we go through, it makes us even better and it just prepares us for the Big East and what comes after that. We’ve just grown a lot this entire year.”