When Paige Madara, AB ’13, MSW ’15, returned to WashU as head coach of the women’s tennis team in 2020, she had one goal in mind: winning the program its first national title.
“My goal was to come back here and to win a national tennis championship,” Madara says. “I didn’t know when that was going to happen, but I really believed in WashU. This place is so special that I knew you could bring in great people through the recruiting process and develop as a team together. I really believed that this was the place where it could happen.”
“My goal was to come back here and to win a national tennis championship. I didn’t know when that was going to happen, but I really believed in WashU.”
Paige Madara
It took five seasons, but last spring, in dramatic fashion, Madara was on the sideline when the WashU women’s team, ranked 10th at the time, upset top-ranked University of Chicago, and then defeated No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer to bring home the NCAA Division III Women’s National Championship trophy.
The final deciding match, in which WashU junior Nina Moravek came from behind to defeat Bazua Vazquez of Pomona-Pitzer in three sets, moved both Madara and her assistant Erin Swaller, AB ’09, MPH ’11, to tears. “It was a dream for us,” Madara said at the time. “Both of us alums and going through this journey together. We believed in this team and we had full confidence.”
Madara knew full well what it was like to be on that court with that kind of pressure. She played four seasons for the Bears while earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology in Arts & Sciences, rising to the rank of team captain her senior year and earning the ITA Scholar-Athlete honor. After she graduated, she stayed on campus and earned a master’s in social work with a concentration in mental health from the Brown School in 2015 while working as a graduate assistant under then-head coach Kelly Stahlhuth.
On the court, and off
Who: Paige Madara
Record as a WashU player: 98 combined singles and doubles wins. In 2013, she won the match that propelled the Bears to the NCAA quarterfinal for just the second time in school history.
When she’s not playing tennis: “I really enjoy running and hiking, just being outside. My husband and I like to go on adventures like sailing and kayaking.”
Her newest adventure: “We just had our first child in July, a boy, Owen! So now my free time is very different.”
A native of Dublin, Ohio, Madara began playing tennis to keep up with her two older brothers, one of whom played for a college team. She only began seriously training in her early teens — a late start for a collegiate tennis player.
“I was one of the worst players on WashU’s team my first year,” she says, “but I was hungry. I wanted our team to do well. We were a strong team, but not a great team.”
Madara credits Stahlhuth for mentoring her to become one of the team’s best players. Her senior year, the team made it to the NCAA quarterfinals for only the second time in program history. “She’s an amazing mentor and support for me,” Madara says of Stahlhuth. “I always feel like she has my back.”
Among the lessons instilled in her by her former coach was the importance of teamwork. “When I look back on my own personal tennis journey, my favorite memories have always been being a part of a team,” she says. “Tennis is an individual sport, but I love it most when it becomes a team sport. When you support those people around you, it really changes the game.”
It was while working on her master’s degree and coaching that she realized she could have a tangible impact on an athlete’s development both on and off the court. She took her MSW and coaching experience to Washington and Lee University, where she served as an assistant coach for one season, then moved to Grinnell College, where she became head coach for both the men’s and women’s tennis programs for four seasons. By the time she returned to WashU in 2020 to coach the women’s team, she was uniquely prepared to meet the moment.
“I understand the WashU student from having my own experience here,” she says. “I understand the many different directions our students get pulled in along with the types of pressures that occur on this campus that are pretty unique to WashU.”
Her background in psychology helps her attune to the emotional needs of the players as well. “My goal is to help our athletes develop as a person, an athlete and a student,” she says. “I want a team that cares about the success of their teammates more than the success of themselves. I think we’ve really developed that here.”
“I want a team that cares about the success of their teammates more than the success of themselves. I think we’ve really developed that here.”
The proof came last spring, when the Bears shook off a slow start — the team finished seventh out of eight at the National Indoor championships earlier in the year — and turned it around in time for the National Outdoor Championships last May. Madara says she observed a “switch flip” in the team.
“We started to come together so much more as a group, and you felt it in the matches, just the way that players were cheering and supporting their teammates, win or lose,” she says. “I felt like we understood each other so much better.
“After we clinched the title, they handed us the trophy, and one of our players walked up to me and said, ‘You told us we could do this from the beginning,’” Madara says. “I did have that belief. It was just a really long journey for us to get there.”
Madara, who welcomed her first child with her husband, Andrew Stith, this past July, is continuously impressed by the kindness of the WashU community. She’s been heartened by the number of WashU alumni who have reached out to her in the wake of the title. She even heard from a former professor. “I think everybody truly cares about seeing our students grow and be successful,” she says, “and that holds true for our staff and faculty. “We get to celebrate each other when exciting things happen, and I don’t know that that happens everywhere.”
“We get to celebrate each other when exciting things happen, and I don’t know that that happens everywhere.”
Paige Madara
