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Matches 11-12: Illinois (4-6) at Nebraska (7-2) and Iowa (6-5)
Location
Lincoln, Neb. // Iowa City, Iowa
Date & Time
Friday, March 6, 5 PM CT // Sunday, March 8, 12 PM CT
Live Scoring
Nebraska // Iowa
Streams
Nebraska // Iowa
Illinois Team Info
Roster | Schedule
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Fighting Illini women’s tennis hits the road to open Big Ten play for the 2026 dual campaign. Illinois will visit former associate head coach German Delmagro and the Huskers in Lincoln on Friday for a 5 p.m. CT match before making a stop at Iowa on Sunday for a 12 p.m. match against the Hawkeyes.
Illinois holds a deceptive 4-6 record on the 2026 campaign, with five losses coming to top-25 ranked opposition. The Illini are looking to get a streak going, coming off a 4-0 win over Kansas City on Monday.
Nebraska is off to a 7-2 start on the year and is 5-0 when playing at home this season. Iowa sits at 6-5 overall and is 0-2 in home matches this spring.
Following the weekend contests, Illinois will return home to host Bradley on Wednesday, March 11, at 4 p.m.
RANKING NOTES
Illinois
Team Ranking – N/A
Singles Rankings
Doubles Rankings
Nebraska
Team Ranking – N/A
Singles Rankings
Doubles Rankings
Iowa
Team Ranking – 35
Singles Rankings
Doubles Rankings
No. 25 – Hayashida/Mack
No. 90 – Hayashida/Dejnozkova
DOUBLES POINTS
Jan. 24 vs. Miami (OH) – #2 Schaefbauer/Cooper and #3 Mester/Madatali
Feb. 2 vs. DePaul – #2 Schaefbauer/Cooper and #3 Mester/Madatali
March 2 vs. Kansas City – #1 Bucher/Xu and #2 Madatali/Schaefbauer
CLINCHES
Jan. 24 vs. Miami (OH) – #1 McKenna Schaefbauer – 6-3, 6-4
Feb. 2 vs. DePaul – #3 Ariel Madatali – 6-1, 3-6, 6-2
Feb. 13 at Iowa State – #5 Lizzie Isyanov – 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
March 2 vs. Kansas City – #1 McKenna Schaefbauer – 6-3, 6-1
ILLINI NOTES
For the first time of her career, Fighting Illini senior McKenna Schaefbauer was named the Big Ten Women’s Tennis Player of the Week, the league office announced follow Illinois’ opening weekend of play. The Normal, Illinois, native produced a 2-0 opening weekend that saw her earn the highest-ranked win of her career with a victory over the No. 40-ranked player in the country.
McKenna Schaefbauer picked up her second ranked singles win of the season on Feb. 20 when Illinois hosted Wisconsin. The Illini senior earned a straight-set upset of No. 14 Maria Sholokhova at No. 1 singles.
During the preseason, Fighting Illini sophomore Ariel Madatali was named to the 2026 Big Ten Women’s Tennis Players to Watch List. The St. Louis native is headed into her second dual season with the Orange and Blue. Madatali is one of 18 athletes named to the Players to Watch List.
Illinois’ 2026 slate features at least 11 matches against squads that appeared in the 2025 NCAA Team Tournament.
The Fighting Illini faced two top-25 ranked opponents during opening weekend (No. 21 Pepperdine, No. 25 Baylor) and followed that up with three more ranked matches while hosting the ITA Team Indoor National Championship (No. 3 North Carolina, No. 7 Duke, No. 12 Vanderbilt).
From Feb. 6-10, the Illini co-hosted the ITA National Indoor Team Championships with Northwestern. As an event host, Illinois was guaranteed three matches in the event and does not have to qualify through ITA Kickoff Weekend. Besides Illinois and Northwestern, the remaining 14 teams qualified by winning two matches at their respective ITA Kickoff Weekend sites.
Illinois added a pair of SEC transfers heading into this season. Tess Bucher (Kentucky) and Cara Mester (Oklahoma) both enter their sophomore seasons at Illinois.
The Fighting Illini freshman class ranked No. 14 nationally by Tennis Recruiting Network. Risa Ueno (No. 14), Lizzie Isyanov (No. 37), and Kimiko Cooper (No. 18) make up the 2025-26 newcomers.
In the 2026 Tennis Recruiting Network class rankings, Illinois ranked No. 20 overall and third in the Big Ten. Evan Clark has now had back-to-back ranked classes for the first time in his career and Evan Clark has now brought in five top-25 recruiting classes overall.
Head coach Evan Clark is in his 11th year as the head coach of Illinois women’s tennis, holds an overall dual record of 150-106 (.588), and is 74-36 (.673) in Big Ten play during his time as an Illini. Including his time as the head coach at UNC-Wilmington, Clark owns a 181-117 record overall.
Illinois has made the NCAA Tournament in three-straight seasons for the first time under Clark and third time in program history. The 2024-25 season’s appearance marked the fifth with Clark at the helm.
Across program history, Illinois has appeared in the NCAA Tournament 16 times and owns a 5-16 all-time record.
Illinois owns an 83-36 record when playing at home under Evan Clark (begins 2016 dual season).
RECORDS