FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno Pacific University Director of Athletics
Aaron Henderson has announced the decision to relaunch the university's men's tennis program. The program will become the 16th sport offered at FPU and is set to compete in the Pacific West Conference during the 2021-2022 season.
"We're very excited to be reintroducing our men's tennis program to the Central Valley as well as our campus community," Henderson said. "The regional popularity of the sport combined with the opportunity to continue to create athletic opportunities for young men throughout the Central Valley made it a logical choice for our next sport offering. With excellent facilities already in place, we will be conducting a national search to identify a quality head coach for the program. It's our hope that Sunbird men's tennis can have a positive impact within our community as well as NCAA Division II."
The program gets a fresh start after compiling a record of 190-38 from 2006-2014. The Sunbirds dominated their last five seasons as a member of the NAIA's Golden State Athletic Conference, winning the league title in each season. In the same stretch, FPU played for five straight NAIA National Championships with victories in 2009 and 2011 before joining the NCAA prior to the 2012-13 academic year.
The Blue and Orange racked up a 39-15 record in two seasons in the PacWest Conference, finishing as the runner-up in the National Christian College Athletic Association Championship in 2013 during the school's transition to the NCAA. The Sunbirds were nationally-ranked during each of their previous two seasons in the PacWest, which has produced a national champion and a pair of second-place finishes in the last six seasons. Fresno Pacific joins
MSU Denver and Colorado Mesa as the newest members of the conference.
The decision comes two seasons after Fresno Pacific successfully relaunched the women's tennis program, which has since returned to national prominence. A
national search for a candidate to coach both teams is currently underway.