Tennis players Alice Otis and Elisabeth Iila have signed with the University of Louisville, according to UofL head coach Mark Beckham.
Iila, a freshman from Tallinn, Estonia, boasts an impressive ITF Juniors ranking of 168 and an ITF women’s ranking of 1342. She is a two-time Player of the Year in Estonia for her age group (U14 and U18). Her accolades include being the U16 Estonian Champion, ITF J4 Tallinn singles winner, J43 singles finalist, J5 Doubles winner, and J1 doubles finalist.
“We are extremely fortunate to have Elisabeth join the team. She is already a very talented player with a lot of room for growth also,” said Beckham. “She will be the only freshman joining the team this year, but she is very mature for her age. There are a lot of impressive things about Elisabeth, but the thing I appreciate the most is her self-independence. She will be coming all the way from Estonia, but her English is excellent, and she takes care of everything herself. Her ability to take care of everything on her own is rare to see these days and will allow her transition to be a lot easier. She will impact our team in both singles and doubles, and I think she has a chance to be one of the better freshmen in the ACC. She has a very high ceiling as a player, but she really wants to be in a team atmosphere where she is not just playing for herself, which is exciting for me as a coach.”
Otis began her collegiate career at the University of South Carolina, where she won four singles matches and played Nos. 5 and 6 singles. After transferring to Denver, she went 20-11 overall in singles (13-6 in dual matches and 6-0 in the Summit League), primarily at No. 5. She posted a 14-19 doubles record and was named the 2024 Summit League Newcomer of the Year. She was voted to the All-Summit League Team and was a 2024 ITA Scholar Athlete.
“I am excited about Alice joining the team,” said Beckham. “She has a lot of high-level experience with her two years of college tennis. She was a very good junior player and wants to play at the highest level possible and compete against the very best players in the country on a regular basis. We were possibly the youngest team in the country last year and that was not an ideal recipe when playing against a lot of seniors and graduate players, so I had to bring in someone with a high level of play and experience. Alice understands that she will impact the team as a player, but she also understands that she will be a piece to the puzzle. She wants to be a good teammate and help the team in any way that she can. I am very appreciative of that. Alice is a very good fit for what Coach Breaunna and myself want as student athletes in this program.”
