As junior Naomi Schraeder steps to the baseline, tosses the ball into the air and sends a thundering serve across the net, she is exactly where she belongs.
Schraeder, a native of Kelowna, British Columbia, attended Kelowna Secondary School where she was named team captain her senior year and held an undefeated record throughout her high school career. She was also crowned the Okanagan Valley Triple-A champion before bringing her game to Moscow.
From the moment she stepped on campus, Schraeder has been a rising star. Her freshman season she turned heads as she grew comfortable in her new surroundings, using the tennis court as her most familiar ground. Arriving on campus as a walk-on, Schraeder’s play quickly proved she belonged, earning an athletic scholarship that same season. She finished that first year with a 21-14 record, going 13-4 in singles (7-1 Big Sky) and 8-10 in doubles (2-6 Big Sky).
Her sophomore season was even better. Schraeder posted a 22-11 record with a singles mark of 14-5 (5-2 Big Sky) and doubles record of 8-6 (4-2 Big Sky), the best season of her Vandal career to that point.
Now in her junior year, she has taken another step forward. Through 14 matches she carries a 12-6 record, going 7-3 in singles (2-1 Big Sky) and 5-3 in doubles (2-1 Big Sky), and by almost every measure this is the best tennis of her college career.
A big part of that has been her partnership with junior Jessica Matthews. The two have served as Idaho’s number one doubles pair all season, posting a 5-3 record together and helping lead the Vandals to an 8-6 record with three straight conference wins. When Schraeder and Matthews step on the court together, they set the tone for the rest of the lineup.
This past weekend offered a glimpse of just how versatile Schraeder has become. With Matthews unavailable, she stepped in alongside sophomore Chenyue Xu and the two wasted no time, cruising to a 6-3 victory over Kelsey Phillips and Meghna Anand to get the Vandals off on the right foot. Schraeder then went back out and defeated Anand in singles, winning the final two sets 6-3 and 7-5 to help Idaho roll to a 6-1 victory over Montana.
Through three seasons, the trajectory has only gone one direction. Schraeder has improved every year and now, playing her best tennis as a junior, she looks primed to make a run at the Big Sky championships in April. The Vandals were picked third in the preseason poll and are rising to match those expectations, with Schraeder helping lead the charge.