Home court advantage will strongly favor the Illinois women’s team at this year’s USTA/ITA Midwest Regional.

It will be held at the Atkins Tennis Center starting Thursday.

Victory at the regional for any Illini means advancing to the USTA/ITA Indoor National Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York, the site of the US Open.

The last regional champion Illinois produced was in 2012, and was the doubles pair of current senior Melissa Kopinski and Illinois alum Rachel White, a senior at the time.

Kopinski is partnered with sophomore Louise Kwong this year. Kwong feels like they can have a similar result to what Kopinski had her sophomore year.

“Our playing styles mesh really well. She moves a lot at the net, while I attack well from the baseline,” Kwong said.

Since she is a sophomore and has played in this tournament once before, Kwong says she feels much more relaxed because she knows what to expect. 

Kopinski and Kwong, along with the rest of the team and head coach Michelle Dasso, said they are also excited to have the opportunity to play such a big tournament on their home court.

The team will need the advantages that home court gives as the tournament field features two Big Ten opponents and top-25 teams in No. 17 Michigan and No. 15 Northwestern.

Dasso believes the biggest advantage of having the tournament at home is not having to travel.

“Not having to drive five and a half hours like we did last year is going to help a lot,” Dasso said.

The team’s other senior, Julia Jamieson, feels that just being able to sleep in her own bed will benefit her greatly.

Jamieson is looking to take an aggressive approach as she tries to make a run in the singles bracket.

“I am an aggressive tennis player, so my forehand transition game has been really solid. It helps me take that step into the court,” Jamieson said. “My serve has also been really big this year, so I am looking to keep that up.”

Another advantage to playing at home is the ability to film the team’s matches.

Each indoor court at Atkins has a camera. From there, videos are put online where the players can download them. This allows for the players and coaches to study film between matches.

The cameras can also live-stream the matches so family members or fans can watch the tennis game from home. This helps the families of Kwong and freshman Jade Hilton, who are both from Canada.

Dasso is confident about the regional, and is really looking to just get as many matches for her players as possible.

There is one other advantage that home court presents, one that Dasso feels is the most important, “The players won’t be missing class.”

Cole can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @cole_Henke.