Former USC Women’s Tennis Head Coach, Dave Borelli, Who Led the Women of Troy to Seven National Team Championships, Dies

Women’s Tennis | July 25, 2023

LOS ANGELES – Former USC women’s tennis head coach Dave Borelli, who led the Women of Troy to seven national team championships, died July 15, 2023, at the age of 71. 
 
Head coach of the USC women from 1974-88, Borelli also coached at TCU and on the pro tour for the USTA. He was known not only as a coach but also as a mentor, friend and role model who touched the lives of countless athletes throughout his extraordinary career.
 
In his career at USC, Borelli posted a 302-45 record for an .870 winning percentage. All seven of USC’s women’s tennis national championships were won on Borelli’s watch. In 1983, Borelli became the youngest coach to win an NCAA women’s tennis title at the age of 32 when the Women of Troy finished with a 33-0 record. Borelli was named the 1981 NCAA National Collegiate Coach of the Year after leading USC to a 33-1 overall record and a third-place national finish. Individually, Borelli developed four Women of Troy into national singles champions — Barbara Hallquist (1976 and 1977), Stacy Margolin (1978), Anna Maria Fernandez (1981) and Beth Herr (1983). In 1980, USC’s Trey Lewis and Anne White won the AIAW doubles title. In all, Borelli saw 25 of his USC players earn a total of 56 All-America honors. 
 
In his time with the Women of Troy, Borelli saw the passage of Title IX bring USC its first female recipient of a full athletics scholarship in Barbara Hallquist, along with the transition from AIAW and USTA competition to the adoption of women’s tennis by the NCAA.
 
As an undergraduate, Borelli played on the USC men’s tennis team, earning the USC Outstanding Senior Scholar Athlete Award in 1974. He began his coaching career while attending USC Law School, from which he earned a J.D. in 1977.
 
Outside of his collegiate coaching roles, Borelli worked as a USTA professional tour coach, mentoring top-100 players such as 2004 Olympic silver medalist Mardy Fish in their rookie careers. In 2002, Borelli became head coach of women’s tennis at TCU, leading his teams from No. 56 to No. 15 in the national rankings through 2006. Coach of the TCU men’s team from 2007-2010, Borelli returned as head coach of the TCU women’s team in July 2010 and retired from TCU in 2014. He was inducted into the ITA Women’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in…