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“The UAA is one of the most competitive conferences in the country,” third-year singles player Jennifer Kung said. “The last two years the top three teams in our conference have made it to at least the Elite Eight [at the NCAA Tournament]. It’ll be really tough to defend our title without Chrissy, especially since we’ll probably have to beat Emory to do it, but I honestly think that if the rest of us compete hard and play to the best of our ability, we could still win the whole tournament.”

Emory (16—4) enters as the Championship’s first seed and the third-ranked team in the country. The Eagles are also the only UAA squad to have defeated Chicago—squeaking out a 5—4 victory in the ITA Indoor Championship back in March—which makes them likely to be the only team that can stop the Maroons. The women overpowered Case 9-0 back in February and defeated their probable semifinal opponent, Carnegie (ranked eleventh despite a record of only 10-6), in last year’s UAA.

But after beating a whole slew of ranked opponents in the regular season, including thirtieth-ranked Wheaton, twentieth-ranked Carleton, seventeenth-ranked Depauw, fifteenth-ranked Wash U. (twice), fourteenth-ranked Chapman, eighth-ranked Washington and Lee, sixth-ranked Denison (twice) and second-ranked Williams, the women will want nothing less than a UAA title.