Director of Tennis/Head Men’s Tennis Coach: Rob Bareford

Montana State Mens Tennis and the Bobcat Anderson Tennis Center is excited to welcome Rob Bareford as the new Mens Head Coach and Director of Tennis

In January of 2020, Rob Bareford was promoted to Director of Tennis to oversee both men's and women's tennis programs at Radford. Since being announced as the head coach of the men's tennis program in August 2018, Bareford has had nothing but success. Taking over a team that went without a win in conference play in 2017-18, Bareford led the Highlanders to a 17-7 overall record and a 5-3 mark against Big South competition in his very first season. It didn't end there, however, as Radford took his lead all the way to a Big South Championship with wins over the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 seeds in the conference tournament. 

Radford made its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 2012 where the season came to a close again nationally-ranked Tennessee. Alexandros Caldwell made the All-Big South Second Team and All-Academic Team while the doubles team of Yevhen Sirous and Rodrigo Magalhaes earned Second Team All-Big South honors as well. The pairing thrived under Bareford and ended the season ranked eighth in the ITA Atlantic Region rankings.

Bareford continued his success into the 2019-20 season leading the team to a 10-1 overall record before the season was cut short due to threats of the COVID-19 virus.

Coming off a pandemic that took away fall play and presented many challenges, Bareford led both the men's and women's tennis teams to the Big South Championship match with wins over No. 3 Gardner-Webb (Men's) and No. 2 Presbyterian (Women's). The two teams combined for a 20-18 record and a 13-6 record on the home courts.

Bareford led the Highlander men back to the Big South Championship match in 2022, avenging a regular season loss to No. 1 Campbell to take home to title. En route to the title, the Highlanders ran away from No. 6 N.C. A&T 4-1 in the semifinal round.

Bareford came to Radford from Hampden-Sydney College where he served as the Head Tennis Coach for four years. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in History from Virginia Tech in 2011 before earning his Master’s degree in Sports Industry Management at Georgetown last spring.

Adopting a struggling program at H-SC that recorded a combined four wins across 2015 and 2016, he turned things around in a major way, leading the Tigers to 12 wins in 2017 and 16 wins in 2018, the most wins for the team since 1992. The 2018 squad also advanced to the ODAC Championship match for the first time since 2011 after finishing third in the regular season and placing eight on All-ODAC teams.
 

Much of that improvement can be credited to a strong recruiting class arriving prior to the 2017 season. Four of Bareford’s student-athletes earned All-ODAC honors that year including a first-team duo at #1 doubles that went undefeated in conference play as well as a first-teamer at #2 singles. Bareford was rewarded for his efforts with a nomination for Division III National Coach of the Year by the ITA and was named USPTA Mid-Atlantic College Coach of the Year.
 

Prior to his time at Hampden-Sydney, Bareford was the Head Boys Tennis Coach at his alma mater, Monacan High School, in Chesterfield County from February 2012 to June 2012. As a student-athlete at Monacan, he was a District Champion, Player of the Year and All-Metro honoree.
 

Bareford played two years of collegiate tennis at University of Virginia’s College at Wise before transferring to Virginia Tech. As a Hokie, he led the Virginia Tech Club team to a 2009 Mid-Atlantic Championship title. He is a certified tennis instructor by the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) and the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).
 

He also has an extensive 13-plus-year background in individual and group instruction and training with youths and adults. Bareford was the Director of Junior Tennis at Midlothian Athletic Club (May 2011 - October 2012), a Tennis Instructor at Midlothian Tennis Club (November 2008 - October 2011), a Tennis Instructor in the Virginia Tech Sports Recreation Department (September 2008-2009), and a Tennis Assistant for Salisbury Country Club in Midlothian, VA (May 2006 - August 2008).

Head Women’s Tennis Coach: Suzie Woodburn

Suzie Woodburn, who served as an assistant coach at the University of Wisconsin last spring, takes over as Montana State Head Women's Tennis Coach.

Woodburn joins the Bobcats after helping the Badgers to a 17-9 overall mark and an 8-3 Big Ten ledger. As a team, Wisconsin finished No. 45 in the final ITA NCAA Division I Women's Tennis rankings. Individually, Woodburn worked with UW's top tandem of Alina Mukhortova and Xinyu Cai as the duo finished the season ranked No. 70. She also helped singles standout Ava Markham to a No. 96 final listing.

"I am excited to add Suzie to the Bobcat family," Costello said. "She was an outstanding player and has recruited, developed, and coached for very successful DI programs. She comes highly recommended from her peers, and I can't wait for her to get started with the Bobcat women's tennis program."

Prior to her stint in Madison, Woodburn was part of the Boise State program from 2013-15, where she gained experience as both an assistant coach, as well as the director of operations for the program.

In her first season with the Broncos, Woodburn helped guide Boise State to a 13-10 overall record, a 4-3 conference mark, as well as a 7-4 tally against ITA Mountain Region opponents. She coached two players who earned postseason all-conference honors in Sandy Vo and Megan LaLone. Vo was also named the ITA Mountain Region Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award winner for her conduct on and off the court, while Anissa Bryant-Swift was named the ITA Mountain Region Most Improved Senior of the Year.

Prior to Boise State, Woodburn served as a tennis professional for one year at Stafford Hills Club in Tualatin, Oregon.

Prior to her time at Stafford Hills, Woodburn served as an assistant coach at her alma mater Cal Poly. During her first season with the Mustangs, she helped guide Cal Poly to its second-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament.

No stranger to the Treasure State, Woodburn, whose husband Justin is a rancher near Geraldine, coached at Fort Benton High School from 2018-2021 where she led the Longhorns top doubles squad to the schools' first ever Class B/C state title. The Woodburns have three children: Quincy, Kai, and McCall.

A Big Ten and Big West standout during her collegiate career, Woodburn (then Suzie Matzenauer), competed at both Northwestern and Cal Poly. As a player, Woodburn was an NCAA individual qualifier in doubles and a four-time NCAA team participant.

At Northwestern (2006-08), she compiled a combined 40-6 singles record in dual matches playing primarily at the No. 6 position. Woodburn also posted a 20-4 doubles mark for a Northwestern program that reached the third round of NCAA Championships during her 2007 freshman season and the quarterfinal round in 2008. In two seasons with the Wildcats, she helped Northwestern to a 52-7 dual record.

A native of Tacoma, Washington, Woodburn had an outstanding collegiate career at Cal Poly, as well. She is one of the most-successful performers in the history of the Mustangs women's tennis program earning All-Big West Conference first team singles and doubles honors in 2009 and 2010. Woodburn finished her Cal Poly duals career with a 39-16 singles mark and a 31-10 doubles record.

Woodburn produced an 18-3 doubles mark in dual matches and a 14-6 singles record during her 2009 junior campaign. A year later, she registered a team-best 14-6 singles mark and teamed with Brittany Blalock to produce a 17-4 record in doubles play that included a victory over eventual NCAA champions Hilary Barte and Lindsay Burdette of Stanford. The pair completed their careers by becoming just the second Cal Poly doubles team to earn an invitation to the NCAA Individual Championships.

Woodburn is a four-time Pacific Northwest Women's Open Player of the Year (2010-13). She won the 2013 singles, doubles, and mixed doubles titles at the prestigious 122nd Annual $20,000 Pacific Northwest Open Tennis Championships.

A four-year letterwinner at Tacoma's Bellarmine Prep, Woodburn helped the program capture four-successive Washington state championships. A Washington doubles champion as a senior in 2006, her junior year yielded a runner-up finish in state singles play.

Woodburn received her bachelor's degree in communications from Cal Poly in 2010 and a master's in athletics administration from Concordia, Neb., in 2019.

Men’s Assistant Coach: Grayson Burns

Grayson Burns begins his first season as Montana State's assistant men's tennis coach. Burns joins first-year Bobcat Coach Rob Bareford after one season at Radford, where he worked on Bareford's staff. At Radford he helped guide the men’s team to a Conference Championship title and NCAA berth. He also worked with Demis Taramonlis, who won the Big South Player of the Year award. A Waynesboro, Virginia native, Burns played four years at Hampden-Sydney. During his career there he was ranked fifth in overall career wins in school history. His singles win total ranked fifth and his doubles win total ranked eighth in school history. In 2016 Burns was named second team all-ODAC in singles and then improved to first team doubles and singles for the ODAC in 2017. Burns also has two years in coaching experience as an instructor for the USTA National Junior Tennis League camps. He was recruited to and played for Bareford at Hampden-Sydney.

Women’s Assistant Coach: Leo Millet

Léo Millet, who spent the past six seasons as the head women's tennis coach at Upper Iowa University, has been named assistant coach at Montana State, announced Bobcat head coach Suzie Woodburn.

Prior to being named head coach at Upper Iowa in August 2016, Millet served four years as a volunteer assistant with the Peacocks

"We are thrilled to add Leo Millet to our program," Woodburn said. "He brings a lot of experience as a NCAA Division II Women's Head Coach. His professionalism and his competitive nature will help guide our team in the right direction. He truly cares about the well-being of our student-athletes and will help them succeed on and off the court."

Millet guided the Peacocks to a 27-53 overall mark and a 22-41 record in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action during his tenure in Fayette. Last season, UIU went 9-8 overall and 6-5 in league play behind the efforts of NSIC Freshman of the Year and All-NSIC First Team Singles selection Charalampia Grammatikaki, and All-NSIC Second Team singles pick Varvara Ogorodnikova.

Overall at UIU, Millet coached five first team all-conference selections, three second team picks and the 2016 Senior of the Year.

Millet, who founded and led the Upper Iowa tennis club in addition to his duties with the women's team, completed his bachelor's degree in business from Upper Iowa with an emphasis in business management and a coaching endorsement in 2016.

The Peacock tennis team finished 9-4 overall and 9-2 in the Northern Sun Conference in 2016-17. UIU played in the NSIC/US Bank Women's Tennis Championship match in 2015-16 for the second straight year finishing as the runner up in the both the regular season and conference tournament. UIU closed out the 2016 campaign with a 13-9 record including a 10-1 NSIC mark.

"I am very excited to be joining Montana State women's tennis," Millet said. "I look forward to helping the program grow and succeed in the upcoming years."

Millet is a product of Aix-En-Provence in the south of France, where he played both tennis and football and was part of the champion team and a selection at the first National State Football Tournament ever organized in France.

Assistant Men’s Tennis Coach: Dylan Harvala - Former Montana State men's tennis standout Dylan Harvala has joined the Bobcat men's tennis coaching staff, head coach Rob Bareford announced Friday.
 
A 2017 MSU graduate, Harvala played for the Bobcats from 2014-17. A Missoula Hellgate product, Harvala has most recently worked at the Riverside Racquet Club in Bozeman, and brings coaching and administrative experience from the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula and the BATC to his new position.