Coach of the Year

Jessica Giuggioli, head coach for W&M Women’s Tennis, led the Tribe to consecutive Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) titles and won the CAA Coach of the Year award for the past three seasons. She also helped lead the team to the NCAA Tournament in each of her years with the Tribe. Her accomplishments have earned her 2025 Coach of the Year recognition from the W&M Alumni Association.

Giuggioli’s ability to recruit and develop talent has been crucial to the tennis program. She has been instrumental in guiding standout players such as Hedda Gurholt ’25, who won back-to-back CAA Player of the Year awards.

Beyond her success on the court, Giuggioli’s emphasis on academics is evident in the team’s record. W&M has received recognition for 19 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Scholar-Athletes and received ITA All-Academic Team honors in her three seasons with the Tribe.

William & Mary appealed to Giuggioli in part because of “the balance between athletics and academics,” she says. She also appreciates the support the tennis program receives from the university and wider community, including invitations for meals and other gatherings: “The community surrounding us is the best I’ve ever been a part of.”

A native of Piombino, Italy, Giuggioli first gained recognition as a tennis player. She became a doubles semi-finalist in the Italian Championships. Tennis brought her to the United States to play at the Van der Meer Tennis Academy in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Training at this academy before her first two years of college proved to be beneficial to her career.

During her collegiate career, she played tennis at both the University of Missouri and University of Kentucky, where she was ranked 12th in the nation. In her freshman year, she was named All-Southeastern Conference. She then began her coaching career at East Tennessee State University as a graduate assistant before moving to Emory & Henry University. There, Giuggioli was promoted to head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams. Then, at Radford University, she transformed the program from a 2-15 record before her arrival to the first season in almost a decade with a winning overall record. After a brief stint at the University of Louisiana Monroe, she joined the Tribe in 2019.

Giuggioli says each of the steps in her coaching career has been valuable to her as she continues to build her skills to become the best coach she can be. At William & Mary, she has focused on creating a culture that is built on the ideas of commitment and integrity, as her athletes and staff represent the university as a whole.

“We want to bring people in who are going to be positively contributing to the community, to the academic side of things here and to our team,” she says. She wants to attract athletes who see coming to William & Mary as a step in their development and not the finish line.

Once the players arrive on campus, Giuggioli focuses on the development of the individual athletes. At the beginning of every season, she sits down with her team and makes sure to clearly define her values and expectations. She discusses hard work, professionalism, accountability and working toward improvement every day. 

“What I look forward to the most is seeing them improve over time, especially players who may not have been in the lineup who advance to playing matches, but also personal development and how their commitment levels have gone up from year one to year four,” she says. 

Giuggioli continues to build on the success of the program through her recruitment of future players. The current squad is a mix of domestic and international talent, with players from Italy, England, Norway, Madagascar and various states across the U.S. This diverse makeup is both a challenge and a gift for Giuggioli, as the players’ different cultures bring new perspectives and add strength and value to the team. 

 As a player, Giuggioli made it to the Sweet 16. Now as a coach, one of her main goals is to surpass this achievement with William & Mary. Last year, the Tribe fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Wisconsin in North Carolina. The Tribe aims to win their fourth straight CAA championship this season and advance to the NCAA Tournament once again with Giuggioli at the helm.

 “We’ve had three pretty good years,” she says, “but our goal is to continue and go even further in the future. “