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The University of Redlands women’s team was having dinner together when Maegan Deng called head coach Peter Yellico to let him know she had submitted her deposit to the school and would be joining the program in the fall.

Four-Star Maegan Deng Will Play For Redlands
© Contributed Photo

As soon as she hung up the phone, Deng received a call from assistant coach Jake De Vries followed by a stream of text messages from her future teammates. Redlands was the first school to contact the four-star from Torrance, California.

She kept in constant contact with the coaches and they attended nearly all of her matches. Deng went to Redlands during her junior year to watch the team play for the first time.

“They were so welcoming. They were the nicest team and coaches and had the strongest team spirit,” she said. “I feel like that was the most important thing for me, because I play tennis more for just the friends and the memories I am going to make than just for victories.”

Deng, who recently graduated from Redondo Union High, is the first four-star recruit to ever commit to Redlands.

“I definitely wanted to attend a D3 because of the academic and tennis balance,” Deng said. “I don’t think I could handle the really hard schedule if it was D1 or D2.”