Chambana Sun

Illinois Women’s Tennis will host the 2025 ITA Midwest Regional Championships at Atkins Tennis Center in Champaign from October 16 to 21. All eight team members are scheduled to participate in both singles and doubles matches during the event.

Risa Ueno and Rosie Seccia are set to begin play in the singles qualifying draw, while Lizzie Isyanov, Tess Bucher, Ariel Madatali, Cara Mester, Alice Xu, and McKenna Schaefbauer will enter directly into the main singles draw. In doubles competition, Illinois will field teams of Schaefbauer/Mester, Seccia/Madatali, Isyanov/Ueno, and Bucher/Xu.

The single-elimination tournament is one of four fall events for Illinois that serve as qualifiers for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships in November. The tournament format includes a qualifying and main draw for singles as well as a main draw for doubles.

Illinois remains at home after most of the squad participated in the UTR/PTT Tournament at Atkins Tennis Center earlier this month. In their last collegiate outing at the Nebraska Invite in Lincoln, all eight student-athletes competed. Schaefbauer, Isyanov, and Ueno finished undefeated in three singles matches each. Bucher, Madatali, and Mester each recorded two wins. In doubles play at that event, Bucher and Xu teamed up for a perfect 4-0 record.

Earlier this season, Schaefbauer and Madatali represented Illinois at the ITA All-American Championships in Cary, North Carolina, competing in both pre-qualifying singles and doubles draws.

This marks the first time since 2021 that Illinois is hosting the Midwest Regional Championships. In 2021, four Illini advanced to Super Regionals. At last year’s Midwest Regionals hosted by Ohio State, six Illinois players began in the singles main draw with Schaefbauer reaching the quarterfinals.

For the 2024 ITA Men’s and Women’s Division I Regional Championships, each region will have a minimum of 64 players in both the main and qualifying singles draws and at least 32 pairs in both main and qualifying doubles draws. The top two singles finalists from each region (26 total) qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship; regional doubles champions (13 total) advance to the NCAA Doubles Championship.

Play is scheduled to begin daily at 9 a.m. Central Time unless otherwise noted. The tournament opens on Thursday with qualifying singles rounds of 64 and 32. Friday features main draw singles (round of 64) and doubles (round of 64). Saturday includes further rounds in both competitions leading up to quarterfinals on Sunday. Semifinals take place Monday, followed by finals on Tuesday for both singles and doubles competitions.