Raquel Vescovi enters her third season as the head men's and women's tennis coach at Lewis University. Vescovi spent the last four and a half years as the head men's and women's tennis coach at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Ill., and has been a head coach at the collegiate level for nine seasons.
During her time at Lake Forest she’s guided the men’s team to a 45-36 overall record and 19-5 in the Midwest Conference (MWC) and two appearances in the MWC Championship match. The Foresters qualified for the four-team MWC Tournament in each of her seasons and claimed four conference titles in singles, another championship in doubles, and a pair of MWC Newcomer of the Year awards during that time. Her teams have excelled in the classroom as well, with 13 Academic All-MWC selections in her four years combined, including a team record six in 2020.
On the women’s side, the Foresters were extremely successful since Vescovi came to Lake Forest, posting an overall record of 68-22 and a league mark of 31-5 with a conference title in 2018-19. The Foresters advanced to each of the last three MWC Championship matches and to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in program history in 2019. Vescovi was named the MWC Coach of the Year in 2018-19. Her players captured 13 conference titles in singles and doubles combined, a MWC Newcomer of the Year award, and 17 Academic All-MWC honors. All eight members of the team were Academic All-MWC honorees in 2019-20.
Vescovi is no stranger to the Great Lakes Valley Conference having served as the head men’s and women’s tennis coach for the 2015-16 season at GLVC rival McKendree. 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 at 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 Institute of Technology from 2012 to 2014 and was twice named Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference Coach of the Year.
Vescovi was a four-year letterwinner at Purdue Fort Wayne serving as a team captain for two years and the two-time All-Summit League selection helped lead the Mastodon tennis team to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2010 and 2011. 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 Purdue Fort Wayne.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in interpersonal and organizational communication from Purdue Fort Wayne and got her master’s degree in organizational leadership from Indiana Tech in 2013.
