May 4, 2017
Colorado Springs, Colo.----- For leading San Jose State University to a 2017 women's tennis championship and the Spartans' to their second NCAA Championship Tournament berth in school history, head coach Chad Skorupka was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year in a vote by the conference's 11 coaches.
Skorupka is the first San Jose State women's tennis coach to be named a conference coach of the year in the program's 40-season history.
Nearing the end of his second season as San Jose State's head coach and fifth in the program, Skorupka is preparing the Spartans for a NCAA Championship Tournament first-round match against the University of California at the Hellman Tennis Complex in Berkeley, Calif., Saturday, May 13, at Noon (PT).
"I'm honored to receive this award. I'm honored to coach this team and be able to share in their joys of the season," Skorupka said about his first conference coach of the year honor in his 11 seasons as a major college head coach. Before San Jose State, he coached four seasons at Yale (2002-05) and five at Wake Forest (2006-10). He has an overall dual match head coaching record of 145-100 before taking his fifth team to a NCAA Tournament.
The Spartans started 2016-17 with a successful fall tournament season, proceeded to a 14-7 dual match record and the 2017 Mountain West Championship as the number-three seed. San Jose State's championship victory was at host UNLV, the defending champion and #1-seed.
His #1 and #2 singles players, Sybille Gauvain and Marie Klocker, were named All-Mountain West in singles and paired up as the team's top doubles combo to earn all-conference doubles honors, too. For Klocker, a senior from Mulhouse, France, she became the first San Jose State and second conference women's tennis player to be named all-conference in both singles and doubles as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior.
"This is well deserved for a coach that has elevated our women's tennis program to new heights," said San José State's interim athletics director Marie Tuite. "Coach Skorupka also was a part of our coaching staff when we won our first conference championship in women's tennis in 2013. These accomplishments are indicative of his commitment to his student-athletes and to the overall program."
He first joined the Spartan coaching staff for the 2013 season as the volunteer assistant. Skorupka was promoted to the assistant coach position in 2014 and took over as head coach in July 2015.
The 1994 Penn State graduate was the 2004 Intercollegiate Tennis Association's East Region Coach of the Year while coaching the Yale team.