Between hiring head coach Evan Clark in 2016 and the start of the 2019-20 season, Illinois went 52-31. This stretch included a 22-win season in 2017-18, tied for the best in program history. However, after a pair of COVID-derailed seasons with a combined record of 14-18, Illinois needed to find its way back to winning.
Change started off of the court, with Illinois recruiting the No. 24 class in the nation. The trio of recruits consisted of two five-stars in Megan Heuser and Kasia Treiber along with four-star Kida Ferrari. This shored up Illinois’ roster as its No. 22 class from 2019 became upperclassmen, and the results followed suit.
As a whole, the Illini went 16-9 the following year and just barely missed the NCAA tournament. Despite this, Illinois got to witness some postseason magic in the form of Treiber clinching a 4-3 win over Iowa in the Big Ten tournament.
“That was one of the first times I’ve ever clinched a match and had my teammates rushing at me,” Treiber said. “I was so pumped and so excited for that moment. When I won … there’s a video of me chucking my racquet on the ground and just embracing the moment. All my teammates rushing the court and having that win be in the Big Ten tournament also just made that a lot better. That moment of being a three-all match, clinching the win for your team, and having your teammates rush at you … I think that’s what people think of when they think of college tennis. To have that already, my freshman year, was pretty cool.”
Four years later, Illinois’ seniors have impacted the team in countless ways. In singles, the trio posted a combined singles record of 159-129. In doubles, they were half of a 142-115 mark. Individually, Heuser earned the title of All-American alongside former teammate and current assistant coach Kate Duong.
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“I’ll never forget sophomore year, becoming an All-American with Kate Duong,” Heuser said. “We won regionals that year, beat the No. 1 (doubles) team in the country, won a pro title that year, and then in the spring we had this incredible season. We go to NCAA when her wrist is broken, and we are All-Americans. That moment, I’ll never forget it. It was insane that we even did that.”
Heuser was strong in doubles next to a number of teammates over the years. However, her partner for most of last season had the added bonus of being one of her most familiar teammates. Teaming up for their last season together, Ferrari and Heuser were 5-5 in doubles during Big Ten play. Most notably, the senior duo took down No. 10 sophomores Teah Chavez and Luciana Perry to give Illinois the doubles point against No. 11 Ohio State.
“Playing doubles with Megan has always been one of my dreams on the court here,” Ferrari said. “She’s just such a solid doubles player. I mean, she’s All-American. I look up to her so much on the doubles court especially. Being able to play with her this year, I felt a lot of pressure to do her good, do her some justice. The fact that we were able to beat the No. 10 team in the nation, I just felt ecstatic. I honestly blacked out, like I didn’t really know what was happening. We were the last doubles match on for the doubles point. All of a sudden, we’re playing this team, and we didn’t even know they were ranked at the time. So we were just out there trying to get that point for our team. When we won that match, I have never been more excited.”
Sharing special moments on the court only means something if the players have bonded off the court. For Illinois women’s tennis and its seniors, there was no shortage of good times to build on:
Megan Heuser:
“They always make fun of me for … I made this, like, really crazy comment. We were in Orlando, Florida, at NCAAs and there’s cows. I was thinking, you know, why are there cows in Orlando, Florida? To me, that just didn’t make sense. My coach is driving. Our trainer, Ros (Senopoulos), is in the passenger seat. Me and Kate are in the back. I looked out the window and I said, ‘Are those real?’ I mean, the entire car stopped, hysterically started laughing, and I was being so serious. They were like, ‘Are you … you’re being for real?’”
Kida Ferrari:
“Hawaii was definitely the team bonding experience for me. Hawaii was just so much fun. We all grew so close. We were all able to just have fun together, play tennis, focus on tennis and then go and enjoy each other’s company afterwards, which I feel like a lot of teams aren’t really able to do. Just what I’ve heard with other schools, a lot of other teams don’t really even converse with each other. The fact that they were all so close and can have game nights together and just hang out in each other’s company … those are my favorite moments.”
Kasia Treiber:
“We do this thing called Greyfield Cup. One person on the women’s team is paired with one person on the men’s tennis team and we go to this donor’s house and do a bunch of competitions. We’ll do, like shooting bow and arrows, kayaking, football … everything you can think of. We go out there, beginning of the year, kind of before school really starts. The winner gets their name engraved on this trophy that (men’s tennis head coach) Brad (Dancer) created. My freshman year I was with Hunter Heck, and we won the Greyfield Cup. I just remember being so excited over something so little, but having my name on the trophy, forever, that just sits in the back office … that was a pretty cool memory.”
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