Elizabeth Begley - Women's Tennis Coach

Elizabeth Begley

Title:
Women's Tennis Assistant Coach
Email:
ebegley@usc.edu

Elizabeth Begley, a two-time Big-12 Champion starter for the Longhorns with over five years of Division I coaching experience, was named the USC Women's Tennis Assistant Coach by Head Coach Alison Swain in December of 2021. She enters her third season as the Assistant Women's Tennis Coach for the Women of Troy.

In the 2022-23 season, the Trojans recorded an overall record of 20-10, going 9-5 in conference play. The Women of Troy kicked off the season with a four-match win streak, and later in the season stormed to a historic second-place finish in the Pac-12 Championship Tournament. In the NCAA tournament, the Women of Troy defeated UNLV in their first-round match-up, before falling to No. 9 seed Pepperdine (host) in the second round. Freshman Maddy Sieg and senior Eryn Cayetano led the way for the Trojans throughout the season, with Sieg making a historic run at the NCAA Tournament as she reached the semifinals in both singles and doubles. As a duo, Sieg and Cayetano earned All-America honors as they reached the doubles semifinals and wrapped up the season as the No. 9 ranked duo in the country. Sieg finished the season ranked No. 5 in singles while Cayetano checked in at No. 43 and was named the ITA National and Southwest Region Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award recipient. The Trojans wrapped up the season as the No. 24 ranked team in the country, with two ranked singles players and three ranked doubles pairings. USC was named an ITA All-Academic Team in 2023 with five players earning the title of ITA Scholar-Athlete. Additionally, four Trojans were named to the Pac-12’s Spring Academic Honor Roll.

During 2022, the Women of Troy recorded an 18-12 record and went 7-3 in Pac-12 Conference play. USC, which remained in the top-25 nationally all season, kicked off 2022 with a 5-0 start to the season and secured a trip to the ITA National Indoor Championships for the first time since 2015. Later in the season, the Women of Troy would be selected to compete in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, defeating San Diego State in Malibu, CA before falling to #8 Pepperdine during the Second Round. Junior Eryn Cayetano and Salma Ewing both turned in stellar seasons, earning placement in the NCAA Singles Tournament and picking up All-American singles honors. Cayetano, who would go on to be named a Honda Sport Award Finalist reached the NCAA Singles Quarterfinals while Ewing would fall during the Round of 16 (she’d later be named the ITA Southwest Region’s Most Improved Senior). The Trojans wrapped up the season as the No. 20 ranked squad in the country, with four singles players and three doubles pairings ranked nationally.

Begley arrived at Troy after holding the Associate Head Coach position at Loyola Marymount University.

At LMU, Begley helped take the Lions from unranked to a top-45 ITA ranking in one season, reaching a program high rank of 44 in 2020 (March 10, 2020). She also led recruiting efforts that led to LMU signing the most decorated recruit in program history.

Prior to her joining LMU's coaching staff, Begley spent the previous three years as the Cornelia Drake and John Van Ryn Jr. '28 Assistant Coach of Women's Tennis at Princeton (2015-2018).

As a coach at Princeton, Begley helped Princeton to a pair of Ivy League titles (2016 & 2018) as the Tigers went 19-4 overall and 7-0 in conference play en route to a berth into the NCAA Championship Tournament. Over her three years, Princeton compiled a 45-23 overall record and was 16-5 in Ivy League play. The Tigers improved from unranked to 22nd during Begley's three years on staff.

Before Princeton, Begley spent one season as a volunteer assistant coach at Baylor, where she helped the Bears to the NCAA team quarterfinals, a berth in the NCAA singles Round of 16 and the NCAA doubles quarterfinals. While three Baylor players earned All-Big 12 honors, the program also had the Big 12 Player of the Year and the Big 12 Coach of the Year.

During her playing career at Texas, Begley had 86 career singles wins and helped the Longhorns to two Big 12 championships, finishing her senior season as the team's No. 2 singles player and ranked 114th in the nation by the ITA. Texas played in the NCAA team tournament in each of her first three seasons, winning at least one match all three times and advancing to the Round of 16 her sophomore year. Begley was an two-time All-Big 12 singles selection and was also a two-time Big 12 individual position champion. Begley was selected as the Most Outstanding Performer at the 2012 Big 12 Championships and won the 2014 ITA Texas Region Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sportsmanship & Leadership Award. Begley earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014.