The Illini are jumping right into high-quality competition to start the 2024-25 season. This weekend, half of the women’s tennis team will head to Waco, Texas, for Baylor’s H-E-B Invite, while the other half travels to Cary, North Carolina, for the ITA All-American Championships. Action starts in Waco on Sept. 20 and finishes two days later while the ITA competition lasts from Sept. 21-29.
Three Illini will be in action on the first day of competition at the All-American Championships. Senior Megan Heuser, senior Kasia Treiber and junior McKenna Schaefbauer start their season in the pre-qualifying singles draw. From there, they have the opportunity to earn a spot in the qualifying draw, which feeds into the main draw. Treiber and Schaefbauer will follow a similar format in doubles, as they will also kick off in the pre-qualifying draw.
Illinois’ unlikely top duo from last season finds themselves in the main doubles draw. Heuser and sophomore Alice Xu had an outstanding 2023-24, totaling a record of 9-4 and peaking at No. 61 nationally.
“This is a tournament that I’ve been expecting to qualify for for a while,” Heuser explained. “I was so excited to see that me and Alice actually made main doubles. At first, that was super like, ‘Oh my God. No way that just happened.’ But then we take a step back, and we realize this is what is now in front of us. We’ve been working the past couple weeks, honing in on small details. Things that work, things that don’t work, just trying to feed off of one another.”
The eight quarter-finalists in the main singles will earn a bid to the NCAA championships in November. Similarly, the four doubles teams who make the main draw semifinals will earn bids. The top two feed-in consolation finalists from the singles brackets will also earn bids.
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Senior Kida Ferrari is the longest-tenured athlete making the trip to Waco. She will be alongside junior Violeta Martinez, sophomore Rosie Seccia and freshman Ariel Madatali. As one of the three seniors on the team, Ferrari said she is looking forward to being a leader this season.
“The past couple years, we’ve had other upperclassmen, other leaders, and I’ve always wanted to step into that role,” said Ferrari. “Being the leader this year … we definitely have different standards for ourselves, and we want the best possible outcome. We want what’s best for them (the team). Even if, for example, I don’t play and Ariel (Madatali) does, I would love for her to grow into it. I do really want them to succeed. I love everybody on this team.”
Illinois’ only newcomer has a resume that speaks for itself. The Tennis Recruiting Network charted Madatali as a blue-chip recruit who peaked as the No. 1 player in Missouri and the No. 9 player nationally in the class of 2024. On top of the accolades, Madatali hails from St. Louis, a recruiting region that head coach Evan Clark said the team has wanted to break into for a while.
“The combination of tennis and academics really attracts high-quality people,” said Clark. “That included Ariel (Madatali). Obviously, her being so close to here helped, as well. Being from St. Louis, I feel like that’s a good connection, a connection that we’ve wanted to make for several years now. Whether it’s Chicago or St. Louis, keeping some of these kids closer to home has been a priority.”
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