On Oct. 26, Elizabeth Isyanov placed second at the IHSA State Tennis match, making her the most decorated tennis player in York History. With the season coming to an end, Isyanov is now focussing on the future of her tennis career. On Sept. 3, 2024 Elizabeth Isyanov publicly announced her commitment to play D1 Tennis at the University of Illinois. While her experience playing outside of school was a large factor to her recruitment, her captaincy and friendships on the York varsity team have helped her become the five star recruit she is today.  

 Isyanov’s tennis career started at a young age. She was introduced to the sport from her father, and has continued to grow as an  athlete since then. During Isyanov’s middle school years tennis started to become more of a priority, with her attending more private lessons and practices. By the time she entered high school, Isyanov already knew she wanted to compete at the college level. As of Oct. 9 2024, Isyanov is ranked third in the state and fourteenth in the nation, according to Babolat Recruiting Lists.

“I started playing tennis when I was three,” Isyanov said. “My dad played tennis so that’s how I got into it. I used to hate tennis, but when I was seven I started competing competitively and I just loved it so much.” 

She made the varsity team as a freshman, and one of most exciting accomplishments happened her sophomore year when she competed at the IHSA state finals match. Isyanov placed fifth in the Class 2A state meet in 2022, making her the first player from York to ever medal in singles at the state level.

 “Sophomore year was really exciting for her,” head coach, Kara Dollaske said. “When you take the whole state tournament, we have doubles tennis which is two players and then we have singles which is just one player. She, in the whole state of Illinois, was basically the fifth best player.”

While this accomplishment was a major spike in Isyanov’s tennis career, it was soon followed by an unforeseen setback. In the summer of 2023 she had obtained a stress fracture in her back that would require a lengthy recovery. She wasn’t able to play in matches during the 2023  season, and instead had to focus on her recovery.

“I’ve always known that I wanted to play division one in college, It’s been my dream for a while,” Isyanov said. “The recruiting process started around junior year. I was injured all of last year with a stress fracture in my back so I couldn’t do anything.”

The injury occured in the summer going in to her junior year. Because junior year is such an important time for sports recruitment and college visits, this hindered her ability to be recognized by coaches and enhance her skills during the lengthy recovery time. But she kept on going, visiting a physical therapist, training her back to make a full  comeback in the summer of 2024. 

“It was a really long process at first,” Isyanov said. “I would start playing again and my back would hurt, then I had to take another month off. Mid April I started feeling better and I had to take it really really slow. I had a physical therapist I was seeing and she gave me a schedule I had to play 30 minutes a day two times a week. Starting off was really painful but I just worked back up to it and I started playing tournaments again in July.”

Despite her back injury, Isyanov persevered with her recovery journey. While the injury set her back in the recruitment process, she was able to bounce back and accept the opportunity of playing on the University of Illinois D1 tennis team. 

 “I’m really excited,” Isyanov said. “I’ve always wanted to play division one, especially at Illinois like Big 10, it was top of my list and I didn’t think that they would offer, especially because I was injured for a while, but overall I’m really excited, I love the coaches and the team.”