Mike Stevens, who owns a quarter century of experience on the NCAA Division I level, enters his fourth year as head women’s tennis coach at Campbell University in 2022-23. Under his guidance, the Fighting Camels have steadily climbed the Big South Conference standings.
In 2022, Campbell posted its highest regular season finish – second place – since re-joining the Big South in 2011-12. CU's only league loss was to eventual champion Charleston Southern as the Camels posted a 14-7 overall record and 7-1 mark in league play. The Camels reeled off nine consecutive wins to close the regular season and won 12 of their final 13 matches.
He recruited the 2022 Big South freshman of the year Marissa Pennings as well as three other all-conference performers in Rhona Cook, Sandra Gines and Mialy Ranaivo.
Seven players – Cook, Tamsin Hart, Anna-Marie Kopecka, Mariana Ossa, Pennings, Ranaivo and Abbie Tyler – earned a place on the 2021-22 Big South Presidential Honor Roll.
Despite the interruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, Stevens has guided his Campbell teams to a 27-18 overall record, 12-5 in Big South play, over his first three years in Buies Creek.
With a roster that included five freshmen in 2021, he guided CU to a fifth-place finish in the Big South standings in a shortened spring season. Senior Ana Castillo earned first-team all-conference honors in singles and doubles in addition to Big South All-Academic team recognition. Freshmen Rhona Cook (second team singles) and Anna-Marie Kopecka (first team doubles) also claimed all-league awards.
Five Camels – Castillo, Cook, Sandra Gines, Kopecka and Lucile Pons – were named to the 2020-21 Big South Presidential Honor Roll.
In his first year in Buies Creek, Stevens guided the Camels to a 9-3 overall record, including a 3-1 mark in the Big South Conference, before the season was halted by the Coronavirus pandemic.
With seven members earning Scholar-Athlete honors, Steven’s first Camel squad was named an All-Academic Team for 2019-20 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). Eight Camels were named to the Big South Conference Presidential Honor Roll, while Alexandra Nicoara was selected to the Big South all-academic team.
Stevens joined the Fighting Camel program in the fall of 2019 after spending the previous nine years at Cornell University, where he compiled the most coaching wins in program history and led the team to its first-ever Ivy League title.
He has 25 years of Division I head coaching experience including his stops at Cornell (2010-19), Binghamton (2003-10), Southeast Missouri State (2002-03) and Rider (1990-94).
While at Cornell, Stevens not only guided the Big Red to a school single-season 15 victories twice. His 2017 club finished ranked No.-49 nationally and he was named the Ivy League Coach of the Year. He recruited and mentored 2017 Ivy League Player of the Year Marika Cusick, who also earned ITA Northeast Region Most Improved Player honors.
In addition to the Big Red’s accomplishments on the courts, Stevens’ teams compiled a team GPA over 3.7 and a 100 percent graduation rate.
During his seven years at Binghamton, Stevens led the Bearcats to a 91-39 dual match record, was named the America East Coach of the Year four times (2005, 2006, 2009, 2010) and finished as conference tournament runner-up five times (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010). He coached the 2005 and 2007 America East Player of the Year (Zeynep Altinay) and the 2006 and 2008 conference Rookies of the Year (Juliana Umeki and Anna Edelman, respectively), as well as the Bearcats’ first-ever Division I nationally-ranked singles player and doubles team. In 2010, Binghamton was ranked as high as No. 68 in the ITA National Poll and finished the year ranked ninth in the ITA Northeast Region.
Recognized as a talented recruiter, Stevens’ 2007 and 2009 classes were nationally ranked among the top mid-major programs by tennisrecruiting.net, including a No.-4 rating in 2007.
He moved to Binghamton after spending one season at Southeast Missouri State (2002-03), where his team quadrupled its victory total from the previous season and recorded its best campaign in five years.
Prior to his time at SEMO, Stevens served as assistant men’s and women’s coach at NC State (2001-02) and assistant women’s coach at Yale for two years (1999-2001). During his time in New Haven, he served as acting head coach in the 2000 spring semester while the head coach was on maternity leave. He guided that unit to a 15-6 dual match record and No.-61 ranking in the country.
Stevens also served as head men’s and women’s tennis coach at Rider. He led the Broncs men to a third-place finish in the Northeast Conference in 1991 and the women to a runner-up showing one year later.
A 1987 graduate of the University of Richmond with a bachelor’s degree in business. Stevens served as a product development specialist for the Prince Sports Group from 1992-96 and as Director of Tennis Operations for the Currituck Club in Corolla, N.C., from 1996-1999.
