Stanford men’s tennis’ associate coach Brandon Coupe earned the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Assistant Coach of the Year award in a vote of its members it was learned Thursday.
Coupe, along with coach Paul Goldstein, engineered Stanford’s best season in 15 years. The Cardinal finished 22-4, earning a top-five ranking in the ITA poll for 13 consecutive weeks, and a No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA championship.
Stanford reached the second round of the tournament, posting its best win total (22) and winning percentage (.846) since 2003. The Cardinal, ranked as high as No. 2 in the ITA poll during the season, finished second in the Pac-12 Conference with a 7-1 record.
In his 11th season as a coach at Stanford, Coupe helped develop a lineup highlighted with three ranked singles players and two ranked doubles teams. Stanford posted its best regular-season record (20-2) since 2001 and won all 11 regular-season home matches.
The Cardinal, which defeated 12 nationally-ranked opponents and recorded 11 shutouts on the year, reached the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championship. Stanford’s 12 wins over nationally-ranked opponents included five consecutive victories over top-12 teams in February. Stanford beat four top-10 teams in No. 4 Georgia, No. 5 USC, No. 6 UCLA and No. 10 Illinois.
Coupe helped coach All-American Tom Fawcett, who completed his singles career 27th on Stanford’s all-time dual wins list with 53. Fawcett was ranked in the top-10 among singles players in the ITA for the majority of the season.
Coupe was one of four members of the Cardinal to earn ITA Northwest Region honors last week, joining Goldstein (ITA Northwest Region Coach of the Year), Fawcett (ITA Northwest Region Senior Player of the Year) and freshman Axel Geller (ITA Northwest Region Rookie of the Year).
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