Ilina joined the King staff prior to the 2014-15 season and became the head coach of the men's and women's tennis programs early in the fall. Since then, she has helped both squads improve as they both qualified for the Conference Carolinas Tournament in 2015-16.
in 2016-17, Ilina led the men to a Conference Carolinas Tournament appearance as they finished fifth in the regular season standings with a league record of 5-5. Overall, the Tornado posted a record of 7-11. Moritz Poswiat was selected for the ITA/Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award and garnered first team CoSIDA Academic All-America honors. Along with Poswiat, Lennard Neumann earned All-Conference Carolinas doubles team honors. On the women's side, King posted a 2-11 record.
The Tornado men earned the fourth seed in the Conference Carolinas Tournament in 2015-16 after posting a league record of 7-3. However, King fell to fifth seed Limestone in the quarterfinals to end their season with a mark of 13-11. Moritz Poswiat and Luis Delgado led the squad as they both garnered first team all-conference honors, while Lenny Keswani was named third team all-conference. Poswiat was also named Conference Carolinas Men's Scholar Athlete of the Year and CoSIDA Academic All-America. For the women, King qualified for the conference tournament as the seventh seed after posting a Conference Carolinas record of 3-8. The Tornado fell to second seed Mount Olive in the quarterfinals to end the season with an overall mark of 6-17.
In her first season of 2014-15, she guided the men's team to their second straight Conference Carolinas Tournament berth where the Tornado fell to Barton for the second time in as many years. In all King posted a 6-12 mark while going 5-5 in league play with Ilina going 5-10 at the helm. On the women's side Ilina guided the Tornado to a 2-16 overall record, going 2-14 with her as the head coach. King played with four players most of the year and earned wins over Emmanuel (4-3) and Southern Wesleyan (6-1) to finish with a 2-9 Conference Carolinas record.
Prior to joining King, Ilina worked in Financial Services, and gave private lessons at different facilities in Johnson City.
Ilina is a PTR Certified Professional, and has worked as staff at Nike Tennis camps at Furman University and at Michigan State University. She also the coordinator of the National Junior Tennis League at the new Ida Jones tennis facility in Bristol.
She was a standout tennis player for East Tennessee State University where she became the first woman, and fourth individual in school history to eclipse 100 wins in her career. She finished her career with 103 wins to set the bar for ETSU women’s tennis in terms of all-time wins. She also tied the single season mark for wins, posting 28 victories in her freshman season.
She finished her junior season with 27 wins and was selected Atlantic Sun Conference Player of the Year as well as first team all-conference. Following her senior season Ilina was named first team all-conference and the ETSU women’s tennis Athletic MVP along with being named the Atlantic Sun Conference Woman of the Year. Ilina also earned the ITA/Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship for the southeast region following her senior season.
Ilina graduated in 2006 with her Bachelor of Business Administration in Economics, minoring in Finance in three years and then earned her MBA from ETSU in 2008.
