Originally hailing from central Illinois, sophomore McKenna Schaefbauer spent her formative years training at Atkins Tennis Center. She was never under the official guidance of head coach Evan Clark, but the two became well acquainted over time. Schaefbauer was able to get a small taste of Illinois’ environment over the course of her childhood through hitting sessions with players and sit-ins on practices. 

Schaefbauer ultimately moved during high school and spent her freshman year of college at South Carolina despite Clark’s best efforts in recruiting. 

Clark did not look back on the time he spent connecting with Schaefbauer and her family as a wasted effort because that was never his approach. Rather than attempting to play a drawn-out recruiting game, Clark was focused on giving Schaefbauer the opportunity to improve.

“You just want to grow the game of tennis no matter what, whether you feel like the individual can help you or your program someday,” Clark said. “I felt like where she was at with her tennis, our team could certainly help her. Being able to hit with some of our girls and just be around our culture and seeing some team practices … was so beneficial for her. So I felt like whether she was going to come to Illinois someday or not, it was going to help her grow her tennis.”

Even though Clark was content with Schaefbauer simply becoming a collegiate athlete, he was quick to reach out when she entered the transfer portal in May 2023. The interest was mutual this time around, with Schaefbauer being drawn to the familiarity of Illinois in particular. 

“I started talking to (Clark) him right when I got into the portal,” Schaefbauer said. “Illinois was definitely a place where I really felt like I could come in and be comfortable. It’s close to home and I’ve known him (Clark) for a long time, so it was definitely a really comfortable decision for me to make. There were really no doubts with coming here.”

Accepting a transfer was unknown territory for Illinois, which had established a pattern of vacancies being filled by freshmen. Clark opted to break that cycle and keep a scholarship open for the program’s first transfer student before Schaefbauer made her decision.  

“We’ve been really lucky,” Clark said. “We’ve always gotten phone calls in May with some pretty good transfers looking to come to Illinois. We didn’t have scholarships available. So it just happens that we kind of changed our philosophy a little bit and kept the scholarship open, thinking that we would have an ability to get a great transfer, not knowing that it would be McKenna. We had a scholarship open, she was in the portal and the rest is history. It worked out very well for us, in my opinion.”

The comforting familiarity of Illinois as a whole and the players’ welcoming environment allowed Schaefbauer to make a smooth transition. In her first semester as an Illini, Schaefbauer split her singles matches 3-3 while also breaking even as a duo with fifth-year Josie Frazier (4-4).

“It’s been a really positive transition for me,” Schaefbauer said. “It’s been really, really good. The girls are great, they’re super welcoming. My relationship with the coaching staff was really good coming in so I think we’ve just grown and really gotten to know each other. Obviously, I’m not exactly the same person I was when I was younger, so they’ve gotten to see me grow up a bit which is really nice and really cool. I feel like I just really have a lot of support here.”

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