For the second year in a row, Illinois women’s tennis received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, based on their No. 39 national ranking. The team traveled to Austin, Texas to take on No. 24 Georgia Tech in the first round at the Texas Tennis Center.
The matchup kicked off with doubles, where the Illini were the underdogs on paper. Georgia Tech had two highly ranked national pairings at No. 21 and No. 63, while Illinois only had the No. 82 ranked duo of junior Megan Heuser and senior Kate Duong. Despite Heuser and Duong achieving All-American status and having a historic season, their connection had been hurt by Duong being injured for a majority of the season. She got hurt in late January and only returned to the lineup four matches before the Big Ten tournament.
Heuser and Duong were swept off the court by their opponents first, losing 2-6. The Yellow Jackets pushed further to beat junior Kasia Treiber and Heuser at the No. 2 slot 6-3, claiming the overall doubles point. Head coach Evan Clark credited Illinois’ loss in doubles to the team not capitalizing on opportunities.
“We had a lot of opportunities in doubles,” Clark said. “Three doubles, we were up 5-1. When play stopped it was 5-3. At two doubles we were a point away from going up 4-1. So I thought that really swung things; they flipped the match at two doubles. Once that flipped, they won two doubles and they obviously won one doubles.”
In singles, it was more of the same for Illinois. Georgia Tech won matches at No. 3 and No. 4 singles in straight sets, not dropping more than six games in either match. At the No. 6 slot, junior Kida Ferrari defeated her opponent in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4, to be the third match off the court. Ultimately, Georgia Tech snagged the last point they needed at No. 2 singles (6-7, 3-6 loss for Schaefbauer) to claim the victory over Illinois. Heuser and Treiber split sets with their opponents in the unfinished matches at No. 1 and No. 5 singles but were each down 1-4 in their third sets when the match was stopped.
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The Illini’s loss to the Yellow Jackets concluded their spring season. The team went 17-10 overall and achieved a season-high national rank of No. 24, their highest placement since the 2019 season. Even with two of the team’s strongest players, Duong and sophomore Violeta Martinez having long periods of injury, Clark was very happy with how the team battled throughout the entire season.
“The team is a great group of kids that fought hard all year and fought through adversity,” Clark said. “I think that if anyone would’ve told you that Kate would’ve been out for that period of time and we would’ve made the NCAA tournament, I think they would’ve called you crazy. I think it’s a testament to our team, so I’m very happy with how everything went down.”
Duong and fifth-year Josie Frazier also played the last matches of their college careers, and their presence is something that the team is sure to miss next season.
“Two really good people, good human beings, that were good examples for the younger kids,” Clark said. “All around solid kids. We’ll miss ‘em a ton and they’ve meant a lot to the program.”
@sahil_mittal24
