A week after sending players to compete in both Waco, Texas and Cary, North Carolina, Illinois women’s tennis reunites for its most important event of the fall season. All nine Illini will head to Michigan State University to compete in the ITA Midwest Regionals with a berth to the ITA National Championships on the line.
The single elimination tournament kicks off on Oct. 12 and concludes on Oct. 16. Freshmen Alice Xu and Rosie Seccia, sophomore Violeta Martinez and junior No. 5 Kida Ferrari are scheduled to compete in the singles qualifying draw on Thursday, with two wins guaranteeing them a place in the main draw.
On Friday, main draw action will commence, starting with the first two rounds of doubles and followed by the first round of main draw singles. In doubles, Xu and Ferrari are teaming up, and Martinez is partnering with junior Kasia Treiber. They are joined in the draw by two other teams: sophomore McKenna Schaefbauer and fifth-year Josie Frazier, as well as the No. 2 All-American tandem of junior Megan Heuser and senior Kate Duong. Heuser and Duong are heading to Michigan State looking to defend their 2022 Midwest Regional title. Last year, they became only the third Illini pairing to win a regional championship. Lifting the trophy again would guarantee them a spot in the ITA National Championships in San Diego during the first week of November.
Heuser, Frazier, Treiber and No. 9-16 Duong will get to skip the qualifying draw based on pedigree and begin their journey in the main draw of the singles tournament.
On paper, the Illini are in a good position to make a solid run in the tournament, especially in doubles. However, Duong and Heuser took two consecutive losses at the ITA All-American Championships last week, and the rest of the team produced mixed results (19-21 record) at the Baylor-hosted H-E-B Invite. Thus, the Illini are looking to produce a much stronger showing in East Lansing. Head coach Evan Clark is confident in how his team has been preparing in between to get ready for regionals.
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“Everybody’s been pretty good, pretty locked in in general (this week),” Clark said. “We had a couple really good practices and played a lot of matches so yeah, I’ve just been kind of impressed with how they bounced back after the first tournament, whether that was at Baylor or North Carolina.”
While the eyes at Michigan State will of course be on Duong and Heuser’s campaign to defend their title, Clark has made it clear that the team’s ultimate focus is consistent improvement during the fall.
“We talk about how every tournament is a new tournament so you gotta keep it going, gotta stay focused on what you did well that previous week and improve on what you didn’t do well the previous week,” Clark said. “All of the fall is just about development, just getting a little bit better with each tournament and hopefully playing better tennis at the end of fall.”
The Illini will look to embrace that growth mindset over the next five days as they try and rally to make a deep run in East Lansing.
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