Tennis Coaches Named ITA Regional Coaches Of The Year

COLLEGE PARK, MD – Katie Dougherty, in her fourth season, has been named the 2023 Wilson ITA Coach of the Year in the Atlantic Region. The Terp’s assistant coach, Ruth Seaborne, was also named the 2023 ITA Atlantic Region Assistant Coach of the Year. Katie and Ruth’s recognitions are merited by back-to-back winning seasons, only the second since 1998-1999. The Terps ended the 2023 season with a 17-9 overall record and a 5-6 conference record.

During the 2023 season, the team consistently competed as an ITA Top-75 ranked team with a season high ranking of No. 33, along with ranked doubles pairings of #18 Selma Cadar/Mary Brumfield and #53 Marta Perez Mur/Minorka Miranda. In the fall, the coaches led the doubles pairing of Selma Cadar and Mary Brumfield to the 2022 ITA Atlantic Regional Doubles Championship finals, followed by an Elite Eight run in the ITA National Fall Championships in San Diego.

Katie Dougherty has a 46-37 overall record since her first season as head coach, and as the tenth head coach in program history, she holds the only winning record. This season, the two coaches led the team to its second consecutive Big Ten Tournament second round victory, beating #8 seeded Penn State in a 4-2 victory. Despite falling to #1 Michigan in the next round of the tournament, the Terps, with 17 wins, tied the second-most wins in a season in program history.

Both coaches are intense advocates of teamwork and leadership. As a graduate transfer from Northwestern, the Terp Tennis mindset and attitude that the coaches promote allowed Hannah McColgan to become an instant leader as well as a 2023 Big Ten Sportsmanship Award recipient. Another leader on the team, senior Selma Cadar, has elected to return to Maryland for another year to continue her collegiate career under this coaching staff.

Under the leadership and guidance of both Katie Dougherty and Ruth Seaborne, the program has cultivated a winning culture, the players have developed into talented and more formidable opponents, and the foundation has been laid for the Terps to be a consistent threat in the Big Ten.