Women's Tennis
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- rgoodman@utk.edu
Robin Goodman comes to Knoxville after spending five seasons as the head men's tennis coach at the University of the Pacific and brings with him over 10 years of Division I coaching experience. Goodman was named the Associate Head Coach in May of 2025.
"Robin and I had the opportunity to work together when we were at Baylor University," head coach Alison Ojeda said. "Both teams were top-10 in the country and both were striving for excellence every single day. I got to see his enthusiasm and joy, while being on the tennis courts and coaching up his players. Since then, he has been an outstanding assistant coach and head coach for the last five years. This is important to me because he knows the responsibilities that come with being a head coach."
Over five seasons, 2020-25, at the helm of the Tigers, Goodman transformed the program. The Tigers gained national notoriety during Goodman's tenure, sending a doubles team to the ITA National Championship in the fall of 2023. The previous fall, Ran Amar advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Super Regionals. In 2024, he was the WCC Coach of the Year after guiding the program to its best conference finish ever, as well as its best ITA national ranking.
"I'm truly honored to join the Lady Vols and become part of the Tennessee family," Goodman said. "I want to thank Alison and Tennessee for trusting me with this opportunity. I've known Alison for many years and have tremendous respect for her leadership and the winning culture she's built here. I'm excited to contribute to its continued growth and am committed to helping our student-athletes strive for excellence and compete for championships."
Prior to Pacific, Goodman served as the men's assistant coach at the University of New Mexico. Goodman proved to form quite a formidable pairing with head coach Ben Dunbar during his time with the Lobos. Working with Dunbar from the start of his tenure, the team went 46-39 across his four years in Albuquerque, N.M., including a conference title in 2019 after going undefeated in Mountain West play.
While with New Mexico, Goodman handled all facets of coaching and administration of the program, including recruiting, aiding with the scheduling of matches, on-the-court coaching, overseeing academics and managing the Lobos' travel logistics, as well as their community outreach programs.
Previously, Goodman spent two seasons with the men's program at Baylor University. Goodman assisted Baylor head coach Matt Knoll, helping the Bears to the NCAA Tournament twice, including an appearance in the national semifinals in 2015. After that season, Baylor placed third in the final ITA poll, the program's highest ranking since 2005.
Individually, Goodman coached Baylor's Julian Lenz, who ascended atop the ITA rankings in 2015, en route to finishing fourth in 2015 and No. 12 in 2016.
Before joining the Baylor staff, Goodman spent four seasons in Des Moines, Iowa, as a member of the Drake University men's tennis program. Racking up 111 career singles wins, he was a two-time All-Missouri Valley Conference selection in addition to being named the All-Missouri Valley Player of the Week three times during his senior year. Additionally, Goodman was a two-time first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete award winner and finished with the fifth-most career victories in program history.
