Amanda Stone hired to lead UNT Women’s Tennis

JT Hammons · June 21, 2023

DENTON, Texas – After leading Louisiana Tech to the two best seasons in program history, UNT Vice President and Director of Athletics Jared Mosley has hired Amanda Stone as the new head coach for Mean Green women’s tennis.

“We are excited to welcome Amanda and her family to UNT to lead our women's tennis program,” Mosley said. “Amanda has a great track record of building successful programs and she quickly rose to the top of our candidate pool. Her vision on how she wants to build this program into a championship contender as we enter the American Athletic Conference stood out to our committee. We look forward to seeing her positive impact on the lives of our student-athletes in the years ahead.”

Stone, the 2023 Conference USA Coach of the Year and Wilson/ITA Southern Region Coach of the Year, comes to Denton following a record-breaking seven-year tenure as head coach at Louisiana Tech. During that time, she became the program’s all-time wins leader with an 89-69 mark in Ruston. She has a 175-89 record all-time in 11 seasons as a head coach.

Under her leadership, LA Tech registered a 20-6 overall record in 2023, the second most single-season victories in school history. The Lady Techsters also best C-USA finish while advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time ever. The program finished the season ranked No. 73 by the ITA, another first.

“I am incredibly grateful and excited for the opportunity to lead Mean Green tennis,” Stone said. “My family and I are thrilled to be joining the North Texas and Denton community. I want to thank Jared Mosley and the administration for entrusting me with the tennis program. I’m excited to get to work and take Mean Green tennis to new heights.”

The 2022 season was also one of the best in LA Tech history, registering the third most victories in school history with an 18-6 overall record. Included in the season was a program-setting 14-match winning streak as well as a 12-match home winning streak, which was also a record.

LA Tech ended the 2022 campaign totaling 81 dual singles wins and 39 dual doubles wins, both ranking second in program history behind only the 1982 squad. Five different players reached double-digit singles victories, led by seniors Ilana Tetruashvili (17 wins) and Najah Dawson (14 wins) who were both named Second Team All-Louisiana. Dawson was also voted Louisiana Newcomer of the Year, becoming the first player in program history to receive this award.

Stone reached a milestone of 150 career victories during the season as well, this after surpassing 50 total wins as LA Tech head coach in 2021 after the program produced a nine-win campaign that was anchored by All-Louisiana honorees Tetruashvili and Alexia Romero.

The Claremore, Okla. native rebuilt the Lady Techsters by showing consistent improvement including double-digit victories in three of her first four seasons.

Prior to Ruston, Stone recorded an 86-20 record and four straight Round of 16 appearances in the NCAA Tournament during four seasons as the head coach at Northeastern State (Okla.), a Division II program located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

The two-time MIAA Coach of the Year returned the RiverHawks back to national prominence, as the team shot up the rankings all four seasons Stone served as head coach. She posted at least 20 wins in each of her four years, which included four straight trips to the NCAA Championship Round of 16. She also led NSU to three-consecutive MIAA Regular Season Championships (2014-16).

Stone boasted two ITA All-Americans, one ITA Central Region Senior Player of the Year, one ITA Central Region Player to Watch, one MIAA Player of the Year, and two MIAA Freshmen of the Year during her time at Northeastern State. Of the 15 players who competed in the program since Stone took over in 2013, 14 earned All-MIAA honors at least once. Those 14 student-athletes amassed 38 all-conference accolades.

She took over the reins of a program that was unranked at the time and led it to the school's first ever Top 10 ranking which came at the end of the 2016 campaign. She also built a stellar academic program with one CoSIDA Academic All-American, four CoSIDA Academic All-District honorees, eight ITA Scholar-Athletes, one MIAA Academic Excellence award winner, 10 MIAA Scholar-Athletes and 13 members of the MIAA Academic Honor Roll.

Stone also spent two years at the University of Rochester (N.Y.), where she served as an assistant coach for both the men's and women's tennis programs from 2011-12.

She played at Northeastern State from 2004-07, where made two national tournament appearances, attained a No. 11 national doubles ranking in 2007 and posted an undefeated singles mark her senior year. Her first collegiate stop was at Oral Roberts, where she played basketball during her freshman campaign.

Stone graduated from NSU in 2007. She is married to Ross Wiersma and has one child, Thea.

COACHING HISTORY
2011-12: Rochester, Assistant Coach

2013-16: Northeastern State, Head Coach (86-20 record)

2017-23: LA Tech, Head Coach (89-69 record)