Last spring was one to remember for Illinois women’s tennis, who made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019 on top of having its first doubles All-Americans since 2013, thanks to senior Kate Duong and junior Megan Heuser. However, injuries derailed Illinois’ postseason and cut its run in both the Big Ten and NCAA short.
This year, Illinois reloaded and appears to be as strong as ever. Ashley Yeah and Emily Casati graduated, but Josie Frazier returns for a fifth year, as does an impressive class of newcomers. The most experienced of them, South Carolina sophomore transfer McKenna Schaefbauer, makes her return to the Midwest after spending much of her childhood training at Atkins Tennis Center.
“I’ve known McKenna for a long time, since she was a little kid,” said head coach Evan Clark. “She used to come here and play tennis … with an instructor that was here. I’ve known the family forever. We recruited pretty hard in juniors, and we just didn’t get her. I was pretty bummed that we didn’t get her, but it’s all worked out for the best. She’s doing great so far, we’re super happy to have her.”
This left just one of Illinois’ eight scholarship spots open for a true freshman. The final spot was filled by Alice Xu, a five-star recruit who was ranked as high as No. 19 in her class and was the top ranked player in Virginia for five years straight. Thus, every scholarship spot on the roster has been utilized to the fullest, but it somehow gets even better for the Illini.
Rosie Seccia, a four-star freshman from IMG Academy walked on for Illinois. This is the first time the Illini have had more than eight on the roster since 2020-21. Getting as high as No. 5 in the state of New York and being ranked as a top 100 recruit for her final three years of high school, Seccia’s pedigree as a walk-on is almost unheard of.
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The combination of retaining six players, five of whom are upperclassmen, coupled with an excellent transfer and two highly ranked freshmen has given Clark confidence.
“It’s probably the most depth we’ve ever had, to be honest,” Clark said. “One through nine. You come watch practice, there’s like no easy matches any day in doubles and singles. It’s exciting, this is year seven for me and I finally feel like I’ve got the deepest team I’ve ever had, which could be a good thing and could be a bad thing. There’s a lot of tough decisions to make at some point.”
Eight of the nine travel to Waco, Texas for Baylor’s H-E-B invitational this Friday, while Heuser and associate head coach Jacob Eddins head to Cary, North Carolina for the ITA All-American Championships. Heuser was placed in the pre-qualifying singles draw, where she will try to earn a bid to the subsequent qualifying and main draws. After some action down south, Duong will join her All-American counterpart for the main doubles draw which begins the following Wednesday.
Clark’s mindset going into the fall season is to simply get each member of the team as much experience as possible.
“I think everyone just kind of needs matches to see where they’re shaping up,” Clark said. “I think it will be a good measuring stick for everyone this weekend. The tournament is really tough, there’s a bunch of really good teams, so every match will just be an opportunity for some of them to see where they’re at and hopefully get some good wins.”
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