It was fitting that a former teammate was the one who informed Laura (Dvorak) Hajduk that she was going into the UI Athletics Hall of Fame.

Because what Hajduk liked about her time with the Hawkeyes was getting a chance to be a part of a team after her tennis career at the juniors level.

“The best part of playing college tennis was it was very team-oriented, and junior tennis is not,” Hajduk says. “Junior tennis, you’re on your own. So it was really fun being part of a team—everybody cheering for each other, supporting each other.”

Iowa women’s tennis coach Sasha Schmid, who was Hajduk’s teammate during her career at Iowa from 1992-95, was the person who told her she was being inducted. “So that was kind of cool, too, that she had seen me play, and then she got to make the phone call,” Hajduk says.

Hajduk grew up in Western Springs, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, so playing close to home meant her parents could watch her compete. She says former Hawkeye coach Mikki Schillig, her teammates, and Iowa’s welcoming campus made Iowa feel like home.

“It was just like a very warm family feeling,” she says. “Even after I visited a few other places, I just knew as soon as I stepped on the campus that this is where I wanted to be.”

Hajduk was a four-time first-team All-Big Ten selection from 1992-95, winning the conference’s freshman of the year award in 1992. She set a program record with 30 match wins as a sophomore, and she currently ranks second in school history in career singles victories (102), third in single-season singles victories (30), and fourth in combined career victories (170).

“I think the older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve appreciated what I’ve done and what I accomplished there,” says Hajduk, who lives in Sherwood, Illinois with her husband and three children. “And playing in the Big Ten, obviously, is great competition, so you constantly had to keep playing and keep working out. Over the summers, over Christmas breaks, there was no time off, because the competition was always so tough. But it was a wonderful four years, so I wouldn’t trade it.”

By John Bohnenkamp