by Justin Kischefsky
Associate Athletic Director / Sports Information
Navy

Brothers and sisters have a natural competitiveness that often consists of nothing more than the simple joy of being an annoyance to the other.  Just do a YouTube search for "I have a brother" or "When you have a sister" and watch some of the shenanigans between siblings captured on video to illustrate this point.

But if nurtured properly, over time that sibling rivalry turns to one of sibling support.  That's the stage of the relationship between the brother and sister tandem of Aaron and Emma Gu, and it has been for some time.

Aaron is a rising senior on the Navy men's tennis team that won the 2026 Patriot League Championship and played in the NCAA Tournament.  Emma is a rising junior on the Navy women's tennis team that also won this year's league crown and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.  Off the court, each carries a 4.00 cumulative grade-point average –– Aaron as a chemistry major, Emma in physics –– Aaron is ranked 25th in his class on the Overall Order of Merit and Emma is ranked fourth in hers, they have been named Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athletes throughout their careers and both have the goal of attending medical school. 

The urge for each to push the other's buttons in a way only siblings can may not have been totally erased, but it has definitely faded and been replaced with the desire for the duo to instead push one another for success and share the journey they are on together.

"Sometimes we can be at each other's throats," said Aaron in an interview when they were in high school, "but then we are best friends again."

"Aaron is a great big brother," said Emma.  "I don't know if I would have told you that in high school.  Did he say that he was the favorite in the family?  He is.  I love him."

–– Growing Up Together ––

The pair were destined to be tennis players.  Their parents first met on the tennis courts in West Lafayette, Ind., after they had traveled from their respective towns in China to pursue doctorate degrees at Purdue.  Peter is now an engineer with Caterpillar and Ping Wan oversees the Pesticides and Water Quality Lab for the Office of the Indiana State Chemist located on her alma mater's campus.

They first began playing the sport with their parents when they were around five years old.  Aaron quickly became serious about the game and started playing tournaments around age nine.  Emma played tennis and other sports at first but soon followed in her brother's footsteps and started to become more earnest about the game and play in tournaments.  Throughout their junior days they were each other's practice partner for hours on end.  

"I always felt kind of bad for Aaron," said Emma, of their junior days.  "No one really plays tennis in West Lafayette.  We would always practice with each other.  That's really good practice for me and maybe not as good practice for him."

With being a year older, Aaron was the first of the two to draw attention from prospective college coaches.  Tabbed as a four-star recruit by the Tennis Recruiting Network and rising to be ranked second in Indiana, he eventually graduated (class of 2023) after having set the William Henry Harrison High School record for the most singles wins in a season (30) and career (88), was a four-time team most valuable player, received first-team all-state accolades in each of his final three seasons and received all-conference and all-district nods in each of his four years.

Navy first came on his radar in 2021.  His doubles partner at that year's USTA 16 & 18 National Championship in Kalamazoo, Mich., was Michael Choi, whose sister, Samantha, was already on the Navy women's tennis team.

"I found out about Navy through Michael at the tournament," said Aaron, "and a few days later (Navy men's head) coach Chris Garner messaged me and asked if I was interested.  I said 'yes.'"

"Aaron was in a ranking area that interested us," said Garner.  "I contacted Tim Madden, who was the former coach at Purdue, for some background research on Aaron.  Tim had a lot of positives to say about Aaron and his family.  When you hear that as a coach, you definitely want to reach out to him."

Aaron took an official visit to Navy that fall and thoroughly enjoyed his weekend in Annapolis spent alongside many of his future teammates in the Class of 2027.  Within a week he had received an offer from Garner and quickly accepted.  

"You could tell right away during his visit that Aaron was going to fit in here seamlessly," said John Moreland, the associate head coach for the men's team.  "He wanted to come to Navy and we didn't have to do too much to convince him."

A Navy flag soon was hanging above Aaron's bed and he painted "NAVY" across his parking spot allocated to seniors at Harrison High School.

Emma also had a decorated junior career.  The five-star recruit earned a pair of high school All-America honors, reached the finals of the state tournament as a senior in 2024, received a trio of first-team all-state laurels and was at one point ranked first in the state.

"I first saw her play at one of the Midwest sectionals," said Navy women's head coach Keith Puryear.  "Her dad alluded to me that she might be interested in Navy.  Aaron was already committed and they really wanted the two of them to go to college together.  They were pretty close and felt Aaron would look out for Emma.  Plus, the prestige of Navy and that she would be challenged academically were also attractive to the family.  It just checked all of the boxes, and I started watching her."

"I don't think she was interested in Navy at first," said Aaron.  "Then she was able to see it first hand through me and I think that opened her eyes a bit."

Though Emma saw Navy as a great opportunity for Aaron, she wasn't sure if it was the right fit for her.  She enjoyed meeting Garner early in Aaron's recruitment days, including his watching her play in a tournament while visiting Aaron, and soon received the opportunity from Puryear to make an official visit to Annapolis.  She will be the first to admit that she made the visit mainly to see what Aaron would be doing for college.

"I would never have gone to Navy if Aaron wasn't here," said Emma.  "I wanted to see where my big brother was going to school, even if I hated it (for myself).  But I ended up loving it."

"I think when she visited here she really fell in love with the Naval Academy," said women's associate head coach Ale Pedergnana.  "She liked the team and what mission was.  The call to serve and the opportunities for what she wanted to study and do with her future were why she came here."

–– Tennis at Navy ––

Emma became part of Navy's regular lineup upon her arrival on The Yard.  She posted a 21-6 record in singles, including a 6-1 record against Patriot League foes while playing in the latter half of the lineup during the 2024-25 season.  

With the Mids losing two-time league player of the year and the school record holder for career wins in Emily Tannenbaum with the Class of 2025, the search for a new player at number one singles for the 2025-26 season ended with Emma eventually taking the spot.  It was a change she struggled with at first.

"The main thing with playing number one is the mentality you need," said Puryear.  "You need to have that desire to go in and compete hard every single match.  With the level of competition we play, every single number one, no matter what team we play, is going to be good.  You can have the game, but if you don't have that mentality, it is tough.  We have had some very good players here over the years who wanted no part of playing number one."

"I think she really wanted to play at number one," said Pedergnana.  "The mental fortitude you need at the one spot ... not everybody wants to be in that position because you are always playing the best player on the other team.  That's something over the summer she challenged herself to understand that she could do, but she still needed to work on her game and mentally be ready to take on the challenge."

She went out tallied a 25-13 overall record, posted a 10-6 record at the top of the lineup in the spring and again finished with a 6-1 record when playing against league opponents.  Additionally, she not only earned First-Team All-Patriot League honors, she also became the first Navy women's tennis player to be named the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year for the sport.

"Every player at one is really good, no matter what school you are playing," said Emma.  "They all know how to compete and hit a great ball.  I struggled a lot with my confidence.  I didn't think I deserved to be playing at one.  We had so many good players on the team, we could put anyone at one with very little argument.  I was just going to fight as hard as I could to get this point for the team.  And it was an awesome opportunity; I was playing the best player on the other team.  I improved way more drastically this year than I did last year, mostly because in every match I had to be out of my comfort zone instead of just doing what would win me the match as I could do when playing at five."

"I still remember a conversation we had late in the spring in which she said she no longer felt like she was an imposter at number one," said Puryear.  "I told her that she never should have felt like that; she worked her way into that position.  To go from playing number four or five as a freshman to playing number one and receiving first-team all-league honors as a sophomore is a huge jump.  She should be commended for that."

"Emma is a really good tennis player," said Aaron.  "She grinds opponents down, fights really hard and never lets up."

"She is fast," said Pedergnana.  "She chases down a lot of balls and has the ability to come into the net after a big swing and take a volley.  She stays in points and is pretty crafty with a lot of variety in her game."

Aaron's game is slightly different from Emma's.

"I hate playing Aaron," said Emma.  "He is good.  He serves and volleys a lot.  I hate that.  He is quick.  He has a good forehand, but a terrible backhand.  I can say that because we used to hit backhand cross for hours and hours in juniors.  We both have a lot of fight.  We both hate, hate, hate losing to each other.  I think that is what makes us successful on the court.  He has a good slice backhand, but no topspin backhand.  Good volleys, great volleys.  He has really good hands.  I'll say that too.  They make me really mad."

"Aaron can do a lot of different things," said Garner.  "He is an all-court player with speed.  He has touch, but can bring some power at times.  He likes to use all facets of his game, and that is not seen as often in tennis nowadays.  People are a bit more one dimensional, but he has a big toolbox he uses.  He has grown as a player to try and figure out how to best use that depending upon the opponent he is playing."

"He is a really good doubles player," said Moreland.  "Aaron has good hands and he has a good serve.  You can pair him with anybody and he makes a doubles team better."

Aaron played in over 100 singles and doubles matches through the end of the 2025 fall campaign, with most of his spring matches in his freshman and sophomore years being played in the latter half of the lineup where he has combined for a 19-19 record.  He then made the difficult decision to take a step back from regularly practicing and playing matches during the 2026 spring season due to his need to study for the Medical College Admission Test.  

–– Shared Lofty Academic Success ––

The MCAT is a four-part, seven-hour exam.  Aaron would take practice exams on Saturday and spend Sunday reviewing his results which, along with his regular Navy coursework, left no time for playing weekend matches for the Mids.

The arduous studying paid off as he scored a 521 (a perfect score is 528), which places him in the 98th-99th percentile of those who took the exam.  

"I was really lucky in that coach Garner and coach Moreland were really understanding of my studying for the MCAT," said Aaron.  "A lot of people take the full semester off from classes to study for it, but obviously I couldn't do that.  I think I ended up taking 17 practice exams.  As much as I didn't want to sacrifice a semester of tennis, I had to do so with how important the MCAT is.  I wanted to try my best at it, and I am glad I did as it worked out."

"Tennis isn't the number one priority here at the Naval Academy," said Garner.  "Obviously Aaron does quite well in the classroom.  He is going to carry over that dynamic to the team.  That level may not be something other people will be able to achieve in the classroom all of the time, but they can see his commitment to trying to get to that level.  That has a great impact on the guys around him."

"Different guys have different roles within the team outside of just playing," said Moreland.  "We have one guy tabbed as the academic liaison within the team.  That's been Aaron's role since his freshman year.  He spends a lot of time checking on the academic progress for the whole team and coming up with a game plan to help everyone stay on top of courses and improve their grades.  He takes it personally and because he is good at it, his teammates respect him for it."

Aaron has already been preparing for his future after he graduates from Navy in 2027.  He spent two weeks in early June shadowing emergency medical personnel at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.  In early July, he will begin a nearly month-long course in military tropical medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda with Walter Reed Hospital.  While there he will study infectious diseases found near the equator, then will spend two weeks in August with a Navy medical research unit in Lima, Peru, which will feature time spent in the Amazon Jungle.

Upon his return to Annapolis, he will begin an independent research project after being selected as a Trident Scholar.  His project, entitled "The Total Synthesis of Fusaristatin C," involves building this complex molecule from scratch in the laboratory using commercially available starting materials. Because Fusaristatin C is found in nature in only minute quantities, successfully synthesizing it will generate the larger supply necessary for biological testing and definitive confirmation of its chemical structure.

Fusaristatin C, which in nature is extracted from Caribbean sea choral, is important due to it potentially having anti-microbial and anti-cancer qualities.  

"I guess I have always had an interest in medicine," said Aaron.  "I didn't know what I wanted to when I first came to Navy.  I did some research for potential service assignments and thought medicine was something I wanted to be part of.  Seeing the pathway to becoming a Navy physician and where they are and what their careers are like really interested me.  I became a chemistry major, and that was that."

Emma is on a similar path with wanting to go into medicine.  She states to have been the first of the two to be interested in the medical field, an interest she displayed by dressing up as a doctor every Halloween when she was young.  Like Aaron, she spent time after classes ended this year shadowing medical personnel –– she followed ophthalmologists at a clinic local to her home –– and soon leaves for an internship at the Oklahoma Research Medical Facility in Oklahoma City where she will be paired with a research professor for a month.  Aaron had the same internship in Oklahoma last summer.

"I like the idea of guiding someone to better their health, said Emma.  "I think that it is very satisfying to have a physical impact on someone and watch them get better.  The opportunities the Navy provides in the field of medicine are very good.  The Navy and military always need doctors.  From when I was a kid, I can't imagine doing anything else."

"She is amazing," said Puryear, "especially with knowing how bright the students are at the Naval Academy.  Being number one academically in her class and playing number one singles in tennis, and she is just this normal kid.  She works really hard at everything she does.  She pushes herself to the nth degree to be the best she can at anything and everything she does."

"She is just beyond impressive with being the student and athlete she is, the social skills she has and just being an incredible person and teammate," said Pedergnana.  "I don't know how she does it."

"Aaron has opened a lot of doors for me," said Emma, "for which I am endlessly grateful.  Not that I wouldn't be successful without him, but he definitely has facilitated my academic learning.  I have the same opportunity next year to shadow at Harvard he had this year.  I don't know if I would have that chance without him.  I just watched him study for the MCAT and he basically made me a study schedule."

–– 2026-27 Tennis Goals ––

Before they trade their Navy whites for hospital scrubs and lab coats, there still is more tennis to be played, and each has goals for the upcoming season.  

For Emma, those goals start with winning Navy another Patriot League title and winning her match and the team's matches against Army.

"For me personally," added Emma, "I just want to contribute to the team in any way that I can.  I have no expectations of where I will be playing, regardless of where I played the last two seasons.  Every season is new.  If I could make the improvements that I did, my teammates also could make that jump. The only expectation I am going to put on myself is that I am going to work really hard at every practice."

"Emma improved from her freshman year to sophomore year," said Pedergnana.  "As she enters her junior year, I think she is itching to hit some personal goals and be part of higher goals with the team.  Beating Army, winning player of the year and going to the NCAA Tournament again and elevating her play in the postseason.  She is constantly pushing herself and her teammates to do better.  It is a fine line to take that next jump, but if she keeps coming in for extra reps and maintains that mentality, that puts her way ahead of what is needed."

As for Aaron, much of his challenge as a senior will be regaining his form on the court after he spent most of the better part of a year off of it.

"I definitely want to return and have one last fun year," said Aaron.  "It will be nice to be back and competing against and with the guys.  With being a Trident Scholar I only have three classes, which means my workload won't be too bad outside of medical school applications.  I can put most of my effort back into tennis."

"It is up to him," said Garner of how good Aaron can be.  "I have always believed in him and his tennis ability.  What he is able to accomplish will be dependent upon how much time he can put into tennis.  And it is not necessarily just the time; it is the mental piece.  How much can you throw in there to see how good you can be to put yourself in the mix of things?  How far do you want to go?"

"The day we returned from playing Wake Forest in the NCAA Tournament," recalled Moreland, "Aaron was already back to hitting twice a day and running and trying to get fit again to get back into the fray.  He is pushing himself and trying to again be someone who can help us out."

–– Family Ties Continue to Be Strong ––

One thing that hasn't changed over time has been the support each has shown the other.  When one may be struggling, the other typically is the first person to know about it.  The two would text or FaceTime for lengthy periods when they had tough matches when playing at differing tournaments while growing up, and that after match support from afar has carried over to their days in Annapolis.  Beyond electronic communication, they still see each other in person multiple times a week either on the tennis courts or in their rooms in Bancroft Hall.

"We both stand each other very well," said Aaron.  "We are supportive of the other and want each to do well.  Whenever I am going through a little pickle, I always message Emma and ask her what she thinks.  It is always nice to have a second opinion from her.  We reciprocate that with each other with class or anything else that comes up in the sense of being at the Academy.

"She is a great sister.  Very supportive.  Really smart, probably smarter than me.  Very emotionally smart and one of the most supportive people you could know."

"We definitely fight less (now)," said Emma.  "Not that we ever really fought much.  We are super close.  Now it is more us against the world.  He has been really helpful with both of us going medical corps and taking the same classes.  He gives me all of the gauge on how to study.

"Honestly, we really only fight on the car.  We fight a lot over the car."

The closeness of the two has been easily noticeable to those around them, and applauded.

"Aaron has pursued a path and Emma has gone on a similar one," said Garner.  "Because Aaron has been so successful, I think it has given Emma confidence that she can do what her big brother has been able to do.  You can see that they both are, obviously, very bright in the classroom and also very capable as far as their belief in what they can do in pursuing a medical career.  I think that is apparent, as is the support they have for one another, because what they are doing is challenging.  They need each other and they lean on each other."

"I love the Gu family," said Pedergnana.  "They are so generous and supportive. They are a very close-knit family.  When you see Aaron and Emma interact, they love their parents, and likewise the parents love their kids.  As a coach, you want supportive parents but they go above and beyond.  Emma gives Aaron a hard time with her saying she is smarter.  With Aaron being a year older, he helps Emma with what to study and how to prioritize things.  They hang out together all of the time."

"They are really close," said Moreland.  "They are competitive, at everything, but they also are super close, which is really cool.  To be that competitive and not have it drive you apart is a great dynamic to watch between the two of them."

"The relationship of Aaron and Emma is one that is sweet and touching," said Puryear.  "They push each other, but it is all done in love."

After being in some ways joined at the hip daily for the last two-plus decades, the 2026-27 academic year may be the last one in which the siblings are together on a regular basis for the immediate future.  It is something not lost on either of them.

"It'll definitely be a bittersweet time," said Aaron of his senior year with Emma here as a junior.  "We've been very close to each other for almost our entire lives and our individual journeys have overlapped a lot.  I do think this upcoming year will be the most special one out of my four years on The Yard, especially with it being my last one.  I'm excited to finish out my undergraduate journey and open a new chapter after graduation."

"We have thought of this," said Emma of their impending final year together.  "When I was home while Aaron was in Boston, it was the first time I had ever been home on leave when Aaron wasn't there.  It was awful!  It is so nice to have a full house and have all four seats at the dinner table.  We visited him in Boston and we talked about how he wants to stay on the East Coast for medical school and I want to go to San Diego.  If both of those pan out, we will be on opposite sides of the country.  That's never happened.  

"This year will be really special.  I can't believe he is graduating.  I think we are just going to enjoy the year.  I definitely will pop in his room more often, especially toward the end of the year.  I am really excited to see what he does."