Raquel Vescovi
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- Title:
- Head Coach
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- Phone:
- 847-735-5286
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- Email:
- rvescovi@lakeforest.edu
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The 2020-21 season will be the fifth for Raquel Vescovi with the Forester women's tennis team and her ninth as a head tennis coach at the collegiate level. She also serves as head coach of the College's men's tennis team and as an advisor for the College's Student Athlete Advisory Committee.
Under Vescovi's direction, the 2019-20 Foresters went 13-5 overall and finished second in the Midwest Conference standings at 8-1 in league play. Julie Lord defended her conference title at #1 singles and, with #1 doubles partner Leeza Bodnar, finished first in the conference for the third year in a row at that spot in the lineup. Lord and Bodnar also finished the year as the eighth-ranked doubles team in the Central Region.
Lake Forest is now 68-22 overall and 31-5 in the MWC in Vescovi's four seasons at the helm of the program. The Foresters qualified for the four-team MWC Tournament each year and have now accomplished that feat in 10 consecutive seasons. Players on the team have claimed 13 conference titles in singles or doubles play and one was named MWC Newcomer of the Year during that time. The team has also excelled in the classroom with 17 Academic All-MWC honors in her first four seasons combined. All eight members of the team were Academic All-MWC honorees in 2019-20.
The Forester men's tennis team has also been extremely successful since Vescovi came to the College, posting an overall record of 45-36 and a league mark of 19-5 in the last four years. Lake Forest advanced to the MWC Championship Match twice and individual players have combined for five conference title performances, two MWC Newcomer of the Year awards, and 13 Academic All-MWC honors.
Vescovi came to Lake Forest after serving as the head men's and women's tennis coach at NCAA Division II McKendree University during the 2015-16 academic year. Her teams combined for a .500 record and the Bearcat men earned the program's first victory over a Division I opponent.
Prior to her time at McKendree, Vescovi was the head women's tennis coach for a season at NCAA Division I Western Illinois University, where she led the Leathernecks to a six-win improvement from the year before. She was also the head women's tennis coach at Indiana Istitute of Technology from 2012 to 2014 and was twice named Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. She also earned her master's degree in organizational leadership from Indiana Tech in 2013.
Vescovi earned her bachelor's degree in interpersonal and organizational communication from Purdue University Fort Wayne and lettered four times for the NCAA Division I Mastodon tennis team. The two-year team captain and two-time All-Summit League selection helped lead Fort Wayne to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011 and was named the squad's Most Valuable Player as a senior. The trip to the 2010 NCAA Tournament was the Mastodon's first in the history of the program. Also a standout in the classroom, Vescovi earned the Chancellor's Merit Award three times at Fort Wayne.
Vescovi resides in Lake Forest.
