Jule Schulte, UND’s all-time wins leader, prepares for one last Summit League tournament

Apr. 23—GRAND FORKS — Jule Schulte grew up in Essen, Germany.

She didn’t know much about North Dakota, but the tennis player committed to UND because she enjoyed the interaction with the coaching staff.

“I was actually in the plane flying here and I thought there would be mountains,” Schulte said. “It ended up being really flat.”

Everything turned out all right.

Schulte, now a senior, hit 100 career victories last season. This spring, she set UND’s all-time wins record.

This weekend, she will play in the Summit League tournament for the final time.

UND, seeded No. 3, will play No. 2 Omaha at noon Friday in Tulsa, Okla. The winner will play for the league title and an NCAA tournament berth at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“I’ve been enjoying it,” Schulte said of college tennis. “We got into the conference final my freshman year, so that was a good start into college tennis. It’s been great. We’ve always gotten to the conference tournament.”

Schulte enters the Summit League tournament with 144 collegiate wins. The old wins record was held by her former doubles partner, Nore Heinitz, who had 134 victories from 2021-25.

Schulte was the first commit under Tom Boysen, who was named head coach in July 2021.

He learned about her from a contact in Germany, one he worked with while he was an assistant at Nebraska and Dartmouth.

“He’s someone I trusted quite a bit over the years,” Boysen said. “He’s pretty on-point if he tells you how somebody is as a player, as a person. I was a big believer just based on that.

“I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted the first set of recruits to be. I wanted people who loved tennis, loved to compete, wanted the team aspect and were looking to get better in college.”

Schulte fit the bill.

She jumped into the middle of the lineup as a freshman, playing at No. 4 and No. 5 singles. Schulte moved up to No. 2 singles by her sophomore season and has been one of UND’s headliners since then.

“She’s hard to coach against,” Boysen said. “I really like being on her court when she plays. She can do a lot of different things. If she needs to go big and hit with pace, she can do that. If she needs to slow it down and keep the ball low with a slice, she can do that. She can come to the net. I think the biggest thing is her variety. She can match up with just about anybody.”

Schulte said her favorite part of college tennis is the team aspect — something that’s not prevalent in Europe.

“Obviously, tennis is a single sport,” Schulte said. “You don’t really have a team. But here, you feel like you don’t only play for yourself, you play for the whole team. It’s been great. It’s been fun. I’ve really enjoyed that. The big matches, you know you have your team behind you and you play your best all the time.”