The Maroons went off to California over the academic break to take on No. 13 MIT, No. 8 Pomona-Pitzer, and No. 9 Middlebury. This trip proved to be a tough one for the South Siders as they fell 7–2, 5–4, then 6–3 to each of the three opponents, respectively.

Chicago started its trip off against MIT, a contest that eventually wound up in the Maroons falling 7–2 to their Boston counterpart. In singles play, first-year Ariana Iranpour at No. 1 singles defeated MIT’s second-year Elysa Kohrs 6–4 in the first set and 7–5 in the second. Fourth-year Megan Tang of the Maroons also won in her No. 2 singles match against first-year Sonya Das, by a score of 6–3 in both sets. However, these were the only wins for the Maroons on the day, but they would take on Pomona-Pitzer next.

The toughest match of the trip would come against Pomona-Pitzer, as the Maroons fell in heartbreaking fashion to the California side 5–4. Ranked No. 8 at the time, Pomona-Pitzer proved to be an excellent test for the No. 13 ranked Msaroons during their trip. On the singles side, the Maroons got wins from Iranpour as well as third-year Sruthi Ramaswami, who won their matches 6–3 6–0, and 4–6 6–2 6–1, respectively. Iranpour and Tang teamed up to win their doubles match 8–5. The Maroons also got a doubles win from Ramaswami and third-year Lucy Tang 8–6. The Maroons couldn’t hold onto their early lead in the match though, and eventually and fell 5–4.

First-year Courtney Warren spoke about the tough loss the team took saying, “Losing 5–4 is always very tough because they’re matches that could go either way, but we just fell short. We have lost a few matches 5–4, starting with our match against Case Western, and after this match our team is excited to start winning some of these close matches.”

“This weekend will be a good test for us, and hopefully we can pull out a good result. The team’s energy has been very positive, and everyone is very excited for next weekend,” Warren added.

The Maroons then took on No. 9 Middlebury to wrap up the trip. The Panthers were the Maroon’s seventh consecutive match against a nationally ranked opponent, proving a good test for the South Siders. Lucy Tang won her singles match for the Maroons over the Panthers 6–4 in both sets. The doubles duos of Warren and second-year Tiffany Chen and Ramaswami and Lucy Tang were victorious for the Maroons, winning 8–2 and 8–5 respectively. However, the Maroons fell short, losing 6–3 to the Panthers in California.

The Maroons play in a week as they will head to Madison, WI next weekend for the Midwest Invitational.