Being a first year coach is usually a difficult thing to do -- just ask Virginia women's tennis coach Mark Guilbeau. However, with the Cavaliers, Guilbeau has found the transition to be fairly smooth. Guilbeau was the head coach of the Kentucky women's tennis team for nine seasons before coming to Virginia. He enjoyed a lot of success at Kentucky and built the program into a nationally recognized team. Guilbeau was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's (ITA) National Coach of the Year in 2005. Guilbeau said he decided to leave Kentucky because of the high amount of respect he has for the academic and athletic community at the University.
"It was very difficult to leave Kentucky," Guilbeau said. "However, I think the University of Virginia certainly was an opportunity to be at a University that, academically and athletically, is one of the best in the country. I felt it was an opportunity to move up in the tennis world. Additionally, [with] the strength of the academic situation at Virginia, you are able to recruit a wider range of players."
Assistant coach Troy Porco is also in his first year at Virginia. Porco was the head coach at Auburn University for eight seasons. However, Porco relished the opportunity to be able to coach at Virginia with his close friend Mark Guilbeau.
"I thought it was a good opportunity," Porco said. "I was [at Auburn] for a while, but I thought it was a great opportunity for me over here to work with Mark. I've known Mark for a long time and greatly respect him."
Guilbeau and Porco have been working extremely hard to turn around the women's tennis program at Virginia. In their first season, they have been doing very well. The Cavaliers (11-7, 5-4) are coming off the most impressive victory in Virginia women's tennis history, defeating the University of Miami 4-3 this past Sunday. The Hurricanes are ranked No. 6 nationally by the Fila Collegiate Tennis Rankings. Virginia battled back from a 3-0 deficit to upset the heavily favored Hurricanes.
The diligent work of Guilbeau and Porco has made quite a difference this season.
"We've been working hard to change the players' mindset and expectations," Guilbeau said. "We've also been working to change the work ethic, trying to get players to do a little bit more of in terms of individual work. Myself and coach Porco have done hundreds of individual workouts, which has been invaluable."
The coaching staff is working extremely hard on improving the team's play in order to achieve the program's short term and long term goals. Both Guilbeau and Porco have expressed their desire to build Virginia into a nationally recognized women's tennis program.
"We want to get better every day," Porco said. "As well as we've done this year, we're still trying to get better every day. In the long term, we're trying to compete for championships. We're trying to position ourselves for a national championship."
The hard work of the coaching staff and players has combined to produce excellent results for the Cavaliers this season. They have already tied the school record for ACC victories in a season, five, and have two ACC matches remaining.
"I think [this season] has gone very very well," Guilbeau said. "In terms of what this team has done, it's been incredible. In 15 years of coaching, this, to me, may be the best I've ever seen a team achieve in terms of its relative level and its starting point. I don't think you'll see too many programs make this kind of a jump in one season. We feel really good about where we are."
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