Owls tennis served NAIA regional awards

Last week, William Woods tennis was awarded some NAIA ITA Regional Awards, with second-year head coach Chance Joost being named the Wilson ITA Men's and Women's Coach of the Year in the Central Region.

Freshman Ben Grumley earned the Central Region ITA Rookie of the Year and senior Ana Zavala earned the Central Region ITA Most Improved Senior. Graduate assistant Keiran President was named the ITA Men's Assistant Coach of the Year.

Since beginning his tenure with the Owls, Joost has continued the program's winning ways since the men's program inaugural season in 2015-16 and after the women's program was brought back the same season after lasting from 1976-99.

Since its inception, the men's program owns a 73 percent winning percentage while the women own a 71 percent winning percentage. The women have qualified for the national championships in all five of their full seasons (not counting the pandemic-shortened one last year) and the men have qualified for four of them, missing out in their first season. Both programs have finished every season ranked in the top 25 of the NAIA coaches' poll, with the women finishing four full seasons and one shortened season in the top 10 and the men having three full seasons where they finished in the top 10.

Every William Woods tennis coach has won the regional coach of the year award, starting with inaugural coach Lauren Meier, then Justin Stuckey and now Joost. In his first full season (after his first season cut short), he led the men to a 16-4 record and a first-round national championships finish and the women to a 15-6 record and a second-round national championships finish.

Joost has previous head coaching experience at Hesston College and as an assistant coach at his alma-mater, Washburn University, where he helped lead nationally ranked teams in Division II. Before that, he oversaw the growth of a junior tennis program as the Head Tennis Professional/Junior Director at Genesis Health Club/World Gym in Merriam, Kansas.

Grumley is the men's program's third rookie of the year after holding a 11-6 record in singles play and a 12-6 record in doubles play. He also earned first-team all-conference selections for AMC/HAAC in singles and doubles. At the time of his signing, he was ranked in the top 130 in his home country of Australia.

Zavala, a NAIA All-America honorable mention this season, also earned first-team all-conference selections in singles and doubles earlier this year. This season, she went 14-3 in singles play and 15-4 in doubles play, increasing her Owl career winning percentage to 73 percent.

From the beginning, Zavala started earning awards at William Woods, winning the regional rookie of the year award in her first season in 2017-18 and being named a NAIA All-America honorable mention for the first time. Since then, she has also won a regional player to watch award and was a NAIA second-team All-American in 2019. She also has been first team all-conference in doubles and second-team all-conference in singles.

The national tennis awards are set to be announced today.