Who We Are
Madison
Madison grew up in Lexington, IL where tennis was very scarce. From a young age, she learned that it would take a lot of determination to achieve her goals. If she wasn’t commuting 2 hours to train in Chicago or an hour to train in Champaign, she could be found working hard at Evergreen Racquet Club in Bloomington, IL,
Madison played 3 years of high school tennis for Central Catholic High School and became the IHSA Singles State Champion in 2016. She ended her junior tennis career as a top 40 national recruit, #2 in all of Illinois, and #5 in the Great Lakes Region . In 2017, after visiting over 14 colleges and receiving many offers, she committed to play college tennis at the University of Utah.
During Madison’s freshman year at Utah, she obtained the title of Mountain Region Rookie of the year while playing #1 doubles and #2 singles in the line up. Her sophomore year she played both #1 singles and #1 doubles where she became ranked #12 in the nation with doubles partner Whitney Turley. Unfortunately, her sophomore year was cut short due to covid. After dealing with elbow pain for almost 4 years that continuously limited her potential, Madison made the tough decision to have elbow surgery. She had been debating the decision for quite some time and with her sophomore season ending early, it seemed like a sign.
In May of 2020, she had Ulnar Nerve Transposition surgery. What was supposed to be a 3 month recovery, quickly turned into a 12 month recovery. Her junior year was mainly spent recovering and her senior year was spent re-developing her game after so much time off. This was an extremely difficult time for Madison to watch so much of her college career be affected by something out of her control.
Due to covid, Madison was granted a chance to play another year at the University of Utah. Having missed out on almost 2 years of her true college experience, Madison decided to play a 5th year at Utah. Finally recovered, Madison mainly played #2 singles and #1 doubles with Anastasia where they went 8-8 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-12 conference. In May of 2023, Madison graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelors degree in Biology. She plans on going to Veterinarian School when her tennis career comes to an end.
Madison didn’t feel like she had a chance to reach her full potential in College. When the opportunity to move to Florida and play professional tennis fell into her lap, she couldn’t pass it up. In August of 2023, Madison and Anastasia made the huge decision to put their futures on pause and to move to Florida chasing this dream of being professional athletes.
Anastasia
Anastasia was born in Moscow, Russia where she began her tennis career. At the age of 7, she was accepted by a small tennis club where she could participate in group lessons with other kids. Soon enough, her family immigrated to the United States from Russia, at a chance for a better life and bigger opportunities for athletic success. Until it was time to head off to college, Anastasia grew up training at Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, an incredible facility and coaching staff which helped her to become a top 30 national recruit and #5 among the Midwest region.
During her high school tennis career at ETHS (Junior and Senior years), Anastasia was a two time singles finalist at 2017 and 2018 IHSA State tournament, IHSA Sectional and Conference Champion and had a combined record of 45-6 for both of her seasons. She really enjoyed being part of a team environment and representing her school, so she was excited to continue competing on the collegiate level.
In 2018, she committed to University of California, Santa Barbara to further her academic and tennis career. Unfortunately, at the end of her freshmen year, she suffered a very serious knee injury during a match that required a severe surgery. It put her out of tennis for almost a year but her determination to come back was stronger than ever. Just as she started to come back and compete again, Covid hit and all of the student-athletes were sent back home for the remaining of the quarter.
During the stay at home order, Anastasia realized that continuing her tennis career at UCSB was no longer something that felt right for her. She made a difficult decision to get on the transfer portal and find a new fit. University of Utah was not on the radar for her, until Madison reached out and asked if Anastasia was interested in speaking to her head coach. Anastasia enjoyed talking to the head coach and after learning more from Madison about the team environment and the leadership there, it was clear that University of Utah was the right fit. In the fall, Anastasia joined the Utes and officially became a member of the team. For the next 3 years she competed on the singles and doubles lineup alongside her teammates while completing a degree in Sociology and a certificate in Positive Psychology.
