Head Coach JAY LOUDERBACK Head Coach 23rd Season Wichita State ‘66
When Jay Louderback took over as women’s tennis head coach at Notre Dame in the fall of 1989, he inherited a program that had competed on the Division I level for just four years and had never participated in the NCAA tournament or earned a national ranking. As he enters his 23rd season at the helm, Louderback has turned Notre Dame into one of the premier women’s tennis programs in the nation. The Irish have finished in the national top 30 in each of the last 19 seasons and have earned 18 berths to the NCAA Championships in that span. Notre Dame has captured 17 conference titles during Louderback’s tenure and has reached the round of 16 or further in the NCAA tournament on nine occasions, including three appearances in the quarterfinals (1996, 2006, 2007) and two consecutive trips to the semifinals (2009, 2010). The Courtney Tennis Center also has served as
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host of the 1998 NCAA Championships, largely due to his efforts. Louderback’s players have enjoyed great success under his tutelage. Twenty-seven All-America awards have been given to a total of 12 different players, and four have garnered national awards from the ITA. In 22 years, 12 different Notre Dame players have garnered a total of 28 invitations to the NCAA Singles Championship and 10 different doubles squads have gained 18 berths into the NCAA Doubles Championship. Louderback’s players also have dominated University awards, winning the Francis Patrick O’Connor Award, given to one male and one female athlete each year who best embody the true spirit of Notre Dame, on seven occasions - more than any other sport. Louderback has had 10 winners of the Byron V. Kanaley Award, the most prestigious honor awarded to Notre Dame student-athletes, the most for any sport in the time since the Wichita State graduate arrived. Another feature of Louderback’s leadership is academic excellence. Since the ITA began awarding the All-Academic Team award to squads maintaining a 3.20 GPA for the year, the Irish have earned the distinction 15 times in 16 years. Only one Division I school, Western Michigan, has a better mark, as the Broncos have won the award all 16 years. In addition, Louderback’s players have had a history of being named ITA ScholarAthletes, which recognizes monogram winners who maintain a 3.50+ GPA for the year.
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME®
YEAR-BY-YEAR BEFORE NOTRE DAME Year School W L 1980 Wichita State 18 12 1981 Wichita State 21 13 1982 Wichita State 21 10 1983 Wichita State 17 18 1984 Wichita State 18 13 1985 Wichita State 15 16 1986 Wichita State 12 12 7-Year Totals 122 94 1987 Iowa State-M 19 8 Iowa State-W 18 17 1988 Iowa State-M 14 14 Iowa State-W 9 19 1989 Iowa State-M 12 11 Iowa State-W 10 15 3-Year Totals 82 84
Pct. .600 .618 .677 .486 .581 .484 .500 .565 .704 .514 .500 .321 .522 .400 .494
He also has produced a trio of Academic AllAmericans. Louderback also has been decorated with nine conference coach-of-the-year awards, and seven times he has been named Midwest Region Coach of the Year. He was awarded the Wilson/ ITA National Coach of the Year in 2006. In 32 years of coaching, Louderback holds a 634-358 (.639) record, including a 589-325 (.644) mark coaching women’s tennis. At Notre Dame, he is 430-180 (.705), making him the winningest coach in program history. After guiding Notre Dame to a 17-8 record during his first year with the Irish in 1990, Louderback led the Irish to their first-ever national ranking the following season, finishing the year at 23rd after a 16-9 campaign. In individual action, Melissa Harris advanced to the second round of the NCAA Singles Championship, becoming the first player in school history to accomplish the feat. The remainder of the 1990’s saw Louderback establish Notre Dame as a fixture among the nation’s elite. After the honor of helping the program earn its first-ever national ranking in 1990, Louderback and the Irish proved it was not a flash in the pan, winning conference championships on nine occasions in the decade (six Midwestern Collegiate Conference and three BIG EAST) as well as earning a spot in the NCAA Championship on six occasions. Seven times in the ‘90’s Louderback’s teams also found themselves ranked in the final ITA top 25 rankings, capped off by the ’95-96 season where the team posted a record of 23-7 and advanced to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time in program history. That year’s team also became the first under Louderback’s tutelage to finish ranked in the top 10, completing the season as the sixth-best team nationally.