S<\/p>\n
enior Stephanie Yakoff \u2014 the first-ever Harvard women\u2019s tennis player to win a match in the singles main draw of the NCAA Individual Championships \u2014 will transfer to the University of Michigan, she confirmed to The Crimson on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
The Wolverines qualified for the Final Four of the women\u2019s 2025 Team NCAA Championships and are multiple-time reigning Big Ten Champions, having won the conference\u2019s regular-season title the past four years and four of the league\u2019s last five tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe culture there is amazing,\u201d Yakoff said. \u201cThe school spirit is amazing; they won the Big Ten many times, and they made the semifinals at NCAAs last year. I think it would be awesome to be able to play for a chance at the NCAA title, and being able to compete in the Big Ten is a whole different level of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Particularly, the senior said the opportunity to attend a Michigan home football game while on her recruiting trip helped sway her decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to go to the Michigan versus Penn State football game, which was a huge culture shock considering it\u2019s like a 110,000-person stadium,\u201d she explained. \u201cSo, yeah, it\u2019ll be a pretty big culture shock, but I\u2019m very excited for it. It\u2019ll be cool to compete in a different conference, and the Big Ten is very, very strong and a high level of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yakoff\u2019s graduate transfer is part of a larger trend of similar moves among Harvard student-athletes amidst recent changes to the NCAA\u2019s eligibility rules. In June, the Division I Cabinet unanimously voted<\/a> to institute an age-based five-year eligibility window.<\/p>\n The change gives Ivy League student-athletes \u2014 previously limited to four years of eligibility at their schools \u2014 the opportunity to graduate with a degree before transferring to a Power Four school without having to graduate early or redshirt.<\/p>\n \u201cI took the official visit last week, and I talked to the coaches a little bit when recruiting before college, and I always thought that it was a great mix of academics and tennis,\u201d Yakoff said. \u201cThat was one of the biggest things that stuck out. Ross is also a great business school, and I knew a bunch of the girls on the team beforehand who are all just amazing people.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduating from Harvard in the spring, Yakoff \u2013 who has a concentration in government on the public policy track \u2013 will enroll in a Master of Business Management program at Ross Business School while competing in her fifth year of collegiate tennis.<\/p>\n \u201cI was actually leaning more towards law in my undergrad, and then this business and fifth-year option was a bit of a blessing in disguise,\u201d Yakoff explained. \u201cI wanted to do something a little more different than my undergrad degree just to get some more skills.\u201d<\/p>\n Yakoff recognized the role that her time in Cambridge has played in preparing her to excel in a prestigious program both athletically and academically.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Harvard prepared me very well,\u201d she said. \u201cI compare it to Michigan pretty closely, just in terms of that balance between the academics and the tennis. Our schedules might look a little different, but I would say that Harvard has been great preparation, especially considering that I\u2019ve been playing here for four years now.\u201d<\/p>\n Yakoff has had an illustrious career in her sport and is prepared to continue it at a national powerhouse. Before enrolling at Harvard, the Fort Lee, N.J., native was ranked as high as fifth in her 2023 high school graduating class on TennisRecruiting.net and was named the 2022-23 USA TODAY HSSA Girls Tennis Player of the Year, one of the most prestigious awards given out to high school tennis players nationally. She also won the Orange Bowl in 2019.<\/p>\n For Yakoff, tennis excellence was basically predestined. Her grandmother pushed for her to be named after tennis legend Steffi Graf, and her brother, who also played collegiate tennis, was named after Stan Wawrinka.<\/p>\n Yakoff\u2019s parents helped inspire her strong focus on both academics and athletics.<\/p>\n \u201cI was always taught to balance the tennis and academic aspect,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n Watching her brother balance tennis and school helped inspire and guide Yakoff as she made her own decisions on where to attend college.<\/p>\n \u201cI followed a bit in the footsteps of my brother,\u201d she said. \u201cI played high school tennis like he did. He went to a very technical school and got a bunch of engineering degrees.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had to one up him somehow,\u201d she joked. \u201cSo I ended up going to Harvard.\u201d<\/p>\n She quickly adjusted to the collegiate level with the Crimson, earning Second-Team All-Ivy honors in both singles and doubles as a freshman. In her sophomore year, Yakoff was integral to Harvard\u2019s conference championship-winning 7-0<\/a> record in the Ivy League and earned Second-Team All-Ivy honors in singles and First-Team All-Ivy in doubles.<\/p>\n Alongside fellow senior Kavya Karra, Yakoff also won the ITA New England Regional doubles championship as a sophomore, securing an automatic bid to the 2024 NCAA doubles tournament. The pair reclaimed their title<\/a> this season.<\/p>\n The Yakoff-Karra duo continued their success into their junior year, reaching a career-high national ranking of No. 40.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna miss all my teammates,\u201d Yakoff said. \u201cI\u2019ll miss playing doubles with Kavya, and I guess it\u2019ll be different playing for a new team for one year, but I\u2019m still definitely excited for that.\u201d<\/p>\n As a singles player, Yakoff also had great success during her junior year. After winning six consecutive matches without dropping a set, she took home the ITA New England Regional singles title in October 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then, the next month, she defeated No. 23 Annabelle Xu \u2014 a University of Virginia player \u2014 at the NCAA Individual Championships. In doing so, Yakoff became Harvard\u2019s first player to win a match in the NCAA singles draw.<\/p>\n