For the Illinois women’s tennis team, its 2013 season is over, but it continues for two of its players.

While the team missed out on postseason play, two of its members will continue playing; Rachael White and Melissa Kopinski earned an invitation to the NCAA doubles tournament, which begins Thursday.

The duo finished the year at 26-12 — 13-8 in the spring season — and ranked No. 25 in the ITA polls heading into the tournament, which will be held at the familiar Atkins Tennis Center courts in Urbana. White and Kopinski are the first Illini doubles pairing to make the tournament since Jennifer McGaffigan and Michelle Webb made the trip in 2003.

“We were all pretty bummed that we didn’t make the team tournament,” White said. “But we knew we had a pretty good chance to make the doubles tournament, so this is a good way to end my senior year.”

The play of White and Kopinski has been directly tied to the team’s performance throughout the spring season. When the duo lost its doubles competition, the team won just two matches in eight tries and when the pair won its match, Illinois held an 11-2 record.

The success White and Kopinski have experienced goes back to their complementary styles nad their chemistry off the court. White is known for having a powerful serve, which sets up Kopinski at the net to pounce on a wayward return. Kopinski also prides her game on an effective service return and ball placement that keeps the pair in rallies longer and allows for the opponent to make more mistakes, or leaves an opening for White to finish off rallies with winners.

Despite not playing together at all in 2012, they played every match together in 2013, so their awareness of each other on the court has never been higher.

“They certainly enjoy playing with each other,” head coach Michelle Dasso said. “To say that they understand each other’s games out there is an understatement. They probably have more experience than anyone out there, or at least just as much as anyone.”

White and Kopinski have a solid relationship off of the court as well. Even with a two-year gap between the two, their off-the-court rapport helps to relieve stress during tough games.

“We get along together really well off the court, too,” White said. “We can relieve some pressure or stress on the court if there is some there. Knowing each other off the court helps us to relieve some of that.”

Though the team was inconsistent during the year en route to a 13-11 record, White and Kopinski knew they were one of the nation’s best pairings all the way back in October. The Illinois pair was invited to the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships on Oct. 3 and 4 to face off against some of the best competition in the country, and they rose to the occasion. The tandem took down four nationally ranked opponents in two days, including victories over No. 9 Stacey Tan and Ellen Tsay of Stanford and No. 6 Samantha Adams and Kenna Kilgo of Texas Tech.

“When (Dasso) asked me in the fall if I wanted to play with Rachael, I said yes,” Kopinski said. “I knew we could do big things … After the All-Americans, we knew we could hang with anybody in the country.”

In addition to the quality wins, the pair added some hardware to their resume by defeating another ranked team to capture the USTA/ITA Midwest Regional doubles championship on Oct. 22. The title was the first by an Illini pair since Webb and McGaffigan completed the feat 11 years ago.

Illinois’ premier doubles team is looking to add to the trophy case this week and thinks that playing the matches at home could prove to be a decisive advantage.

“We’re not satisfied with just making it,” White said. “We’re really lucky to be playing at home, and we want to go as far as we can without having pressure on ourselves.”

The team earned five wins against ranked opponents in October alone. If they can replicate that feat in May, they’ll be hoisting the national championship trophy.

Stephen can be reached at [email protected] and @steve_bourbon.