Sargeant named Tech tennis coach

Louisiana Tech Director of Athletics/ Vice President Eric A. Wood announced Wednesday that Amy Sargeant has been hired as the new women’s tennis head coach.

Following a highly successful playing career at Florida State, Sargeant has spent the last decade as an assistant coach with stints at her alma mater as well as New Mexico, Oklahoma, and most recently Clemson where she also served as interim head coach in 2023, guiding the Tigers to one of their most successful seasons on the courts in recent years.

“During the hiring process, we set out to find someone we felt could not only build upon the recent success of our tennis program but also fit our culture at Louisiana Tech; we found that person in Amy Sargeant,” said Wood. “ She has great passion for the game of tennis, evident by the success she has had as both a collegiate player and coach. More importantly though, she has a great passion for people and building strong, meaningful relationships with studentathletes. We are excited to have Amy be our next head coach of LA Tech Tennis.”

After spending two seasons at Clemson as an assistant coach, Sargeant was named interim head coach on Nov. 17, 2022, immediately established a winning culture that garnered results. The Tigers ended up recording a 16- 12 overall mark, the most wins since 2015.

Included in that was an 11-1 start to the spring dual season, the best start since 1986, with one of those victories coming against rival South Carolina, the first such win in eight years. Clemson was consistently ranked in the top 45, peaking as high as No. 29 (highest since 2018).

“I am so very humbled and honored to step into this exciting position,” said Sargeant. “ A special thanks to Dr. Eric Wood for his encouragement and trusting me with this opportunity. From the moment I stepped on campus, I felt a connection to the Bulldog family and the Ruston community.

“Maintaining and enhancing this program’s culture is of the utmost importance. I am excited to embark on this journey to continue building this program with class, integrity, and competitive excellence, both on and off the court,” she added.

The team experienced improvement in her first two seasons on staff, helping the Tigers to a 13-13 record in 2022 and sending the doubles pair of Samantha Buyckx and Ali DeSpain to the NCAA Doubles Championship Tournament. The pair earned their first ranked wins and first top- 25 victory in 2022, as well as their first ACC Tournament match victory, a 4-3 thriller over Virginia Tech.

Prior to heading to the Palmetto State, Sargeant was an assistant coach at Oklahoma for four seasons (2016-20). The Sooners improved year after year with her on staff, peaking in 2019 when OU went 17-9 and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2015, making it to the Round of 32.

Sargeant was named ITA Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year after helping coach four All- Big 12 selections (most in program history at the time), including Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Oleksandra Korashvili.

She was selected as one of the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Summer Collegiate Coaches for the 2019 season, working with the USTA’s top collegiate players as they compete at 25k pro events) She made the move to Norman, Oklahoma from Albuquerque, New Mexico where she was an assistant coach for the Lobos for one season (2015-16).

In that one season, Sargeant helped UNM to a 15-7 record and a perfect 5-0 mark in the Mountain West Conference, earning the No. 2 seed in the MWC Championship where they advanced to the semifinals.

She coached three All-Mountain West Conference selections while helping Lobos reach as high as No. 48 in the country.

Sargeant’s collegiate coaching career got its start at Florida State where she spent two seasons (2013-15) as a volunteer assisting with practices and coordinating player strategies and individualized drills while pursuing her master’s degree.