Bareford ushers in new age of men’s tennis

MSU is currently in an era of nearly unprecedented success, with Bobcats across a number of athletic disciplines succeeding in big ways. MSU hopes to continue the trend with the hire of Men’s Tennis Coach Rob Bareford.

Bareford most recently coached at Radford University before coming to MSU. Under Bareford, Radford appeared at the NCAA championships on more than one occasion. 

“They’re both high level programs, both division one,” Bareford commented on the transition. “The biggest difference so far is that we have our own indoor facility here,” he said. 

“I brought an assistant coach with me from Radford. We’re both new and it’s a clean slate for men's tennis,” Bareford said, referring to Assistant Coach Grayson Burns.

During his time at Radford (where he coached both the men’s and women’s teams), Bareford amassed a cumulative record of 80-48 (or a winning percentage of 0.625). He also won two Big South Conference Championships with Radford. 

Along with the Championship came a berth in the NCAA tournament, the second of Bareford’s career. 

Bareford evidently hopes to continue this trend of success, saying, “I've won two conference championships before, I would like to think I know what it takes to get that, and I would like to keep doing that here.”. 

Men’s tennis enjoyed some success in the previous season, with the team taking home the Big Sky title during the regular season. “They had a pretty good year, regular season champs. Had a doubles team that went to NCAA champs and ended up beating a good UVA team,” Bareford said of the previous year’s lineup. 

The doubles team he referenced was Matej Panik and Jamieson Nathan. The UVA victory was a huge upset, as the Virginia duo was ranked 12th. Nathan and Panik finished the year ranked 2nd in the region and 52nd nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. 

The Bobcats squad as a whole was ranked 5th in the region. 

Bareford seemed more than optimistic about the team’s chances this upcoming season, saying, “Instead of the goal being to win the Big Sky, it should be the expectation.” 

It’s important to note that Bareford does more than just coach the team. Part of his title includes being the director of the Bobcat-Anderson Tennis Center. “The success of the facility deals with both the success of the men and women's program. It’s been a challenge to fix some things that weren’t going the best. We’re trying to implement some changes to grow the community,” Bareford said of the center. 

Under the direction of Bareford, MSU tennis may very well be headed for big things.