Chattanooga, Tenn. – Western Carolina's historic women's tennis season ended on Friday with the program's first-ever appearance in the semifinals of the 2025 Southern Conference Championships as the Catamounts fell 4-0 to top-seeded Furman on the courts at the Champions Club.
The Catamounts scratched and fought on all nine courts of play on Friday, holding leads on doubles court three and the top two singles courts when play concluded.
WCU (15-10, 4-3 SoCon) wrapped up one of – if not the – best seasons in program history, setting a single-season record with 15 team wins and recording the first conference tournament victory in program history with Thursday's 4-0 win over No. 5 Mercer. Furman (20-3, 7-0 SoCon) advances to the conference championship match against ETSU.
The duo of Madison Schwarz and Angela Perez led the Catamounts in doubles play, battling for a 5-3 advantage as the third seed before the Paladins claimed the initial point. Jade Groen & Chloe Schwarz fell in their matchup on the top court 6-3 as Furman took the 1-0 edge.
WCU's lineup shuffled in singles play as senior Andrea Redondo took over as the six seed and Madison Schwarz, Angela Perez, and Hokualohi Lui all moved up a spot to the third, fourth, and fifth courts, respectively. Jade Groen and Isabella Sambola went the distance in their opening sets on courts one and two, claiming tight 7-6 (7-5) and 7-6 (8-6) tiebreaker victories to open play.
All four backcourt Catamounts fell in their opening sets, but Lui and Schwarz put on tremendous rallies on courts three and five in the second. Both Catamounts trailed 3-1 in their final sets, but Lui cut the deficit to 5-4 and Schwarz battled to tie it at 5-all before the Paladins took the 6-4 and 7-5 wins to secure the match. Perez had battled back in the second set and was tied at 3-all when the semifinal bout was decided.
Seniors Andrea Redondo and Angela Perez leave the Catamount program after incredible careers in Cullowhee. The duo has seen 50 Catamount team victories in the Purple & Gold as one of the winningest classes in program history.
Perez is one of only two Catamounts to record 40 or more singles wins and is second in all-time solo victories behind only Jade Groen's 46. Redondo finishes her career ranked fifth in all-time doubles wins with 34 after recording three consecutive seasons of double-digit doubles tallies.
The historic 2024 season also saw four Catamounts claim postseason honors, headlined by Player of the Year Jade Groen and fellow first-team all-conference selection Isabella Sambola. Groen was joined by Madison Schwarz as first-team All-SoCon in doubles, with Hokualohi Lui landing on the SoCon All-Freshman team as voted by the league's head coaches.
