After picking up three straight home wins, No. 24 Illinois women’s tennis will be on the road for the Blue Gray Tennis Classic. The event is attended by seven other programs including No. 22 Texas Tech, No. 26 Yale, No. 36 Alabama, No. 43 Arizona, No. 59 Wake Forest, Furman and Tulsa. There is a double bracket format that ensures each team gets to play three matches in two days, with Illinois starting against Tulsa on Friday before playing whichever of Alabama and Arizona have the same outcome in round one.
The Illini have been to the Blue Gray Tennis Classic many times under head coach Evan Clark, only missing a couple of seasons due to COVID-19. There are a lot of recurring faces from year to year, with all three of Illinois’ opponents from last year returning in 2024 — Alabama, Arizona and Wake Forest. However, Clark said that with so many changes in a year, there is not much of an advantage there.
“Every year so much changes,” Clark said. “Some new faces, some familiar faces; but I think there’s a lot of depth in the tournament this year, one through eight. That’s why we play it, we get three quality dates and we don’t have to worry about scheduling. It’s going to be super competitive. This will be our biggest challenge yet, for sure.”
While experience against individual teams may not carry over, a lot of Illinois’ players got a feel for the tournament’s format and what kind of fatigue to expect last season. Senior Megan Heuser said that knowledge will be very valuable this time around and they are doing their best to prepare the freshmen and transfer sophomore McKenna Schaefbauer.
“We know what to expect,” Heuser said. “We know it is super grueling on your body, we know what it takes in order to be successful. Being able to use what we’ve already gone through and help the two freshmen and McKenna adapt to this environment will be super helpful. I’m just super excited for our entire team to be there.”
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This weekend is a bit of a homecoming for junior Kida Ferrari, who hails from Fairhope, Alabama. Ferrari said that on top of having additional support from hometown friends, she spent a significant amount of her time in juniors playing on the tournament grounds.
“My experience (with Blue Gray) is a little bit different because I grew up in Alabama,” Ferrari said. “I played, no exaggeration, maybe 50 tournaments on those courts from when I was 11 to when I was graduating high school. It’s kind of nostalgic for me so that brings me a lot of excitement on its own. I had a good crowd of Alabama friends there last year so I am really excited to get back out there.”
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