In a whirlwind of a fall season that ended as quickly as it began, Illinois women’s tennis will close things out in Fort Worth, Texas and San Diego, California. Beginning on Friday, eight of nine Illini will travel south to the TCU Invite before senior Kate Duong and junior Megan Heuser head to California for the ITA Fall National Championships on Nov. 1.
Last season, Duong and Heuser earned a bid to the big stage by winning the Midwest Regional tournament, but this season it was their prestige and high ranking that granted them an at-large selection. Illinois’ historic duo will be looking to at the very least match their round of 16 exit from last season. After a slower start to this fall, head coach Evan Clark believes his top duo is not only back to where they left off but that they are beginning to surpass the extremely high mark they established last season.
“They’re starting to play their best tennis, doubles-wise,” Clark said. “It got to a little bit of a slow start just because they haven’t played with each other a ton. We saw the true Megan and Kate at that regionals so that’s good. They’re ready for the next step. They’re top 10 in the country. They were All-Americans last year but I think they’re still looking for more. If they’re playing the right way, they can beat anybody.”
But before that, Heuser will join the other seven Illini in Texas for the team’s final ensemble competition of the fall season. A significant amount of the team will be competing in the USTA/ITF 15K tournament at Atkins Tennis Center next week, but that is a professional event and the participating Illini will be considered unattached to Illinois.
These past six weeks have featured an entirely brand new form of tennis for freshman Rosie Seccia, and admittedly, the change has been challenging. However, as the fall season draws to a close, it’s the moments as a team that she points to as the most positive parts of her time in Champaign.
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“It’s been a little bit of a challenge, getting adjusted to playing for a team,” Seccia said. “But it’s been a lot of fun traveling with the team and kind of playing a new way of tennis compared to juniors. I’m looking forward to playing another one this weekend and just improving on what I feel like I need to work on.”
On Friday, the competition will begin with afternoon doubles matches against TCU and Baylor before seven singles matches against a combination of players from the same two schools. Once that is completed, there will be back-to-back doubles and singles matches against a duo and competitor from Kansas State.
The action picks up again the following morning, beginning with four doubles matches against a mix of familiar opponents in Kansas State and fresh faces from BYU. The three schools will follow this up by playing each other in singles immediately afterward. All eight Illini will be active in both sections.
Sunday is as close to a spring season match as one can get in the fall, with four doubles matches and eight singles matches featuring players from Illinois and Kansas on each side. Although slightly differing in the number of matches, with 4/8 compared to 3/6, it’s likely that both sides will look at the final count to see if their team would’ve walked away victorious in the spring.
A fifth-year was something Josie Frazier was interested in when she learned it would be an option all the way back in March 2020. Now with the end of her in that fifth and final fall season on the horizon, she’s focused on making the most of it.
“It’s been pretty good so far,” Frazier said. “It’s definitely been weird, it’s been a lot of ‘lasts’ for me. It’s been strange but it’s been fun to be with the team. I’m really looking forward to the (spring) season, I think we have a really good team this year. We’re all super close and I’m excited to just have one more good year with the Illini. It is very bittersweet.”
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