On Thursday, the athletics department announced that Katie Dougherty will be the new head coach of the Iowa women’s tennis team.

Dougherty will be the seventh head coach in the history of the program. She has coached in the Big Ten for the last five seasons, previously holding the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator positions at Wisconsin.

The last two seasons at Wisconsin, Dougherty’s recruiting classes received national recognition from Tennisrecruiting.net.

Prior to her position at Wisconsin, Dougherty was an assistant coach at Penn State from 2004-07 and American University in 2003-04. In 2004, she guided American to the Patriot League conference title and the NCAA Tournament.

She also played tennis at Wisconsin and was a four-year letter winner and a nationally ranked doubles player.

“We are extremely excited to announce Katie Dougherty as our new women’s tennis coach,” Senior Associate Athletics Director Jane Meyer said in a statement. “Katie brings coaching experiences from two other Big Ten institutions along with a Big Ten playing career.”

— by Patrick Rafferty