Ivan Fernandez, who served as head coach at NM State for seven years and led the Aggies to four consecutive berths in the Western Athletic Conference championship match, was named women’s tennis head coach at UTEP on June 5, 2017.
Fernandez’s Aggies played for the WAC title in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2015 NM State captured the league crown and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament. In 2016 the Aggies were the WAC regular season champions with an undefeated league mark.
NM State boasted the WAC Player of the Year in 2016 (Ashvarya Shrivastav) and 2017 (Rimpledeep Kaur). Kaur was first team All-WAC this past season. The Aggies also had a first team All-Conference doubles tandem in Kaur and Marie-Pier Thiffault. In 2010, NM State had the first nationally ranked doubles tandem in school history in Aleksa Costa and Sophia Marks.
Overall, the Aggies tallied 18 All-WAC honors and 42 Academic All-WAC selections under his tutelage. Fernandez has also coached numerous Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team members.
Under his direction, NM State women’s tennis received a Public Recognition Award from the NCAA in May for posting a perfect 1,000 multiyear Academic Progress Rate (APR). The Aggies fashioned a 3.5 grade point average, annually ranking among the best of the Aggie athletic teams in the classroom.
Fernandez also served as director of the NM State Tennis Center, which hosted the WAC Championship three times during his tenure as head coach.
Fernandez spent 12 years at NM State in all, including five as an assistant coach (2005-10).
He previously was a volunteer men’s and women’s assistant coach at NM State (2000-03), a women’s assistant coach at FIU (2003-04) and a men’s assistant coach at East Tennessee State (2004-05) prior to returning to Las Cruces. The Buccaneers won the 2005 Southern Conference Championship with a 13-0 record and secured an NCAA Tournament bid. Fernandez was a tennis professional in Las Cruces from 1999-2003.
Fernandez has taught tennis since 1990.
A Puerto Rico native, Fernandez received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas in 1996. His wife’s name is Lausanne.
