Monmouth College

Monmouth College Senior Profile: Ivana Stefanova

Fighting Scots' No.1 tennis player from Streamwood also ranks high academically

by Barry McNamara

Monmouth, Ill. (10/16/2026) — Ivana Stefanova has been No. 1 for an awfully long time. The clock is running out on that distinction, but don't be sad for the Monmouth College senior tennis star. She possesses the attributes to be No. 1 in whatever chapter she decides to write next.

At Hoffman Estates High School in suburban Chicago, Stefanova played No. 1 singles her freshman year and maintained that spot in the Hawks' lineup all four seasons. The same has been true of her time with the Fighting Scots. It didn't happen on day one, but she had the spot by her third match and wound up winning her first seven matches at No. 1, including a trio of 6-0, 6-0 double bagels.

Flash forward to her senior year, and Stefanova got off to another strong start. She didn't post any double bagels, but she also didn't drop a set while winning seven straight times. In nine of those 14 sets, she won 6-1 or 6-0. Included in that streak was a 6-1, 6-2 win over a player from new Midwest Conference member Luther.

"I had a good match against Luther," said Stefanova of one of the top highlights from her season. "She was a new opponent for me, a lefty from Germany. I played some of my best tennis ever."

Stefanova's unbeaten streak to start the year finally came to an end against a player from Grinnell who only has one loss herself this year. She didn't go down without a fight, falling 7-5, 7-5.

"To be honest, my serves let me down," said Stefanova. "It was a pretty close match, but at the end of both sets, I lost focus, and it slipped away from me. I played pretty well, though."

Stefanova's serve is typically a weapon, as is her aggressive mindset, a trait she learned from her father.

"I've got a pretty well-rounded game, but I like hitting winners, aces - I like to dictate the game," said Stefanova, who first picked up a racket at age 5 and has plenty of tournament experience to go with her combined eight years of high school and college tennis. "I don't like to hit 20 balls to win a point. I get bored. I like getting into the net and hitting volleys. That's how my dad taught me."

Her winning high school ways caught the eye of Monmouth tennis coach Brian Dahlstrom.

"After my senior season, my coach came up to me and said the coach from Monmouth College wants your email address. I said, 'Sure, give it to him.' We met Coach Dahlstrom at a Starbucks," which led to a campus visit, which sold her on her future home.

A 'super brilliant' student

Tennis was a given at Monmouth. There was little doubt she'd do well academically, too, but in what field?

"I was thinking exercise science at first and getting into something like athletic training, but I took a general chemistry class and really enjoyed it," said Stefanova. "I like that a lot of chemistry is logic-based. I realized I was good at the math part of it. I like the molecules. It's fun to figure out new things about life. Just the other day, we learned there are nine different types of ice."

Chemistry professor Audra Goach is just as excited to have Stefanova as a student in her department as Dahlstrom has been to have her leading off his lineup.

"It's been a joy to have Ivana as a research student as well as my supplemental instruction leader for analytical chemistry," said Goach of the senior who has "an extremely high GPA. She is super brilliant and has a level of calm and chill that I admire and wish I had."

In addition to assisting Goach, Stefanova has taken advantage of two other big opportunities that've come her way - studying abroad and taking part in the Doc Kieft Summer Research Program.

"In the spring of 2025, I did a semester abroad at Johannes Kepler University, which is in Linz, Austria," said Stefanova. "I met a lot of new people, learned some German, and I even went to a pro tennis tournament. It was nice to experience something new."

By no means was it Stefanova's first time in Europe. Her parents, Stanislav and Iveta, are from Bulgaria, and she travels with them to the country every summer. That Bulgarian influence was also felt in the Doc Kieft program, as Stefanova studied bacteria in yogurt, including both the Greek and Bulgarian varieties. The full title, if you're scoring at home, was "Investigating Antibacterial Properties of Lactobacillus Bulgaricus Against Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria Using the Langmuir Monolayer Technique," a research method popularized at Monmouth by Goach.

"Ivana has left an impact on me in her almost four years here, and I consider her my partner in teaching the analytical chemistry course," said the longtime chemistry professor. "I trust that my students are in the most capable hands with her. She will be very hard to replace."

Coach Dahlstrom knows the feeling. He recruited one of the program's all-time greats, who had her sights set on Monmouth's record for singles wins, but will ultimately not play enough matches to get there.

"It's been a privilege to be part of Ivana's journey here at Monmouth that started with meeting her and her father at a Starbucks in Schaumburg," he said. "I think she received the ultimate compliment during our meet this past weekend when the Grinnell coach commented that he was impressed by how much better she's gotten since her freshmen year. It's been amazing to see the growth in her tennis game but also her leadership on the team over the past four seasons."

Stefanova will carry a collegiate record of 38-14 into the final action of the fall portion of the schedule - home matches on Oct. 17 against Lawrence and Lake Forest. The two top players on Monmouth's list, Class of 2009 teammates Brittany Donnelly and Cassie Frantz, have 43 and 42 wins, respectively. However she fares the rest of the way, Stefanova will rank third all-time.

"I think coming to Monmouth was one of the best decisions I ever made," said Stefanova. "I've made friends that I'll have for the rest of my life. I'm close with my professors. I got opportunities here that I wouldn't have gotten at a larger university, and I had a great four years playing tennis here. I enjoy being here."