By Vanessa Lim
Three student members of the University of Maryland’s club tennis team say online backlash has taken a toll on their mental health after people circulated their names, faces and social media accounts online.
The backlash followed an October incident involving an image that incorporated Ku Klux Klan hoods into the Maryland State flag that was shared among schools participating in a regional tennis tournament. All three students say they were not involved in sharing the imagery. Following this incident, the team was suspended indefinitely. The club members said people shared their personal information and images, directly exposing them to public scrutiny.
“Part of me thinks that we were used as a scapegoat, and we still don’t even know who the actual person [responsible] is,” said Leah-Ann Abraham, a sophomore mechanical engineering major who joined club tennis last fall.
UMD President Darryll Pines issued a campus-wide email on Nov. 5 confirming that the investigation is ongoing and the university is continuing remedial efforts to heal the groups the imagery affected.
The club members said they felt unfairly associated with the incident since they were not aware of the imagery until they saw it on the news.
According to the IMLeagues Club Tennis roster, the team had a total of 338 members at the time of the suspension.
Mia Milicevic, a team member who joined club tennis last fall, hopes that when the investigation ends it will make the public realize the imagery was not a group effort.
“I think especially once the investigation is over it will be understood that it’s not realistic that all 300 members were involved,” said Milicevic, a sophomore public health major.
Milicevic and Abraham described club tennis as a welcoming environment where they found a sense of belonging on campus and met some of their closest friends.
Abraham, an out-of-state student from Pennsylvania, said club tennis was the only reason she decided to stay at UMD.
“I was still questioning if UMD was a good fit for me and honestly the only reason I stayed at UMD without transferring is because of the tennis team and the bonds I made there,” Abraham said.
Milicevic said playing the sport she loves brought her joy last semester, but she now feels uncomfortable carrying her rackets around campus.
“I went once to practice [tennis] with someone just after the incident, and I honestly felt super uncomfortable walking around campus with my tennis rackets. I felt like I was constantly getting looks. It just didn’t feel right at all,” Milicevic said.
Chetana Killada, a sophomore information science and computer science student who joined the club tennis team in fall 2025, shared a similar experience as Milicevic and felt like she was being watched and recorded on campus.
“The worst part was I would be walking to class, and I would I felt like people were taking videos of me, or I was sitting in class and someone would be looking at me and I don’t know if I was being paranoid, but it just it felt like people could just tell since my face has been out there,” Killada said.
Killada estimated that about 10 news channels and 30 to 40 people requested to follow her on Instagram after the incident. She also said she received multiple direct messages on TikTok that shamed her for being a part of club tennis.
“I participated a lot in the club and I love playing tennis, and somehow that was my downfall on social media when this came out,” Killada said.
Killada, Abraham and Milicevic all said that they reject the narrative that the club tennis team has had a history of racist actions and that they attribute the club’s conflicts to social tensions and not racial discrimination.
Killada attributed the social tensions to disagreements over competition rosters.
“We had some disagreements with the past presidents about nationals rosters, which was a really big issue, and they resigned, but there was never anything about race that was mentioned,” Killada said.
Abraham described the incident as a wake up call for herself to realize how media and false narratives play a major role in how misinformation can spread rapidly.
“We totally understand all this hate because if we were on the other side, we would be mad as well, but we just know that based on our experience, that it’s not us that is giving out this hate,” Abraham said.
Killada attributed the false narratives to the lack of direct information that the public has access to and that it fuels the surge of misinformation and false accusations.
“When [the public does not] know the whole story and they don’t know exactly what happened and they don’t have the direct information, they just make up their own stories and go along with it, just because other people are, and it really takes a toll on people, especially the ones that didn’t do anything and are also getting dragged along as well with everything,” Killada said.
Featured Image: An Eppley Recreation Center tennis court usage polices sign on Nov. 10. Photo By Vanessa Lim.