Lucas Announces Resignation After Seven-Season Career at North Florida
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Following a seven-year career as the head coach of North Florida men's tennis, Matt Lucas announces that he will be stepping down from the position,
Lucas' final day at North Florida will be June 30, as the veteran head coach moves into a new phase of his life and career with his family.
In his seven seasons at the helm for UNF, Lucas notched an 87-59 (.596) overall record, with a 33-9 record in conference play. He has also marked a stellar 21-3 record over the past three years against ASUN opponents. In his nine seasons as a Division I men's tennis coach, Lucas saw his teams to 108 total victories, while also fostering the growth and development of numerous student-athletes along the way.
"We are grateful for Coach Lucas and his tenure as the UNF Men's Tennis Coach. His teams achieved great success on the court and in the classroom," said Director of Athletics, Nick Morrow. "He impacted many lives within the program and in the community. He is leaving the program with an undefeated conference record, national team ranking, regular season championship, tournament championship, and NCAA Tournament berth. The program is certainly in a better place than when he arrived. I look forward to seeing what is next for Matt and his family."
Lucas is coming off the most successful career as a head coach at the Division I level with an undefeated record in conference play for the second time at UNF, ASUN regular season and tournament championships and NCAA team and singles postseason appearances. He also helped usher the ASUN's Player of the Year, Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Doubles Pair of the Year, as well as two First Team All-Conference and two All-Academic selections during the 2023-24 season.
It was the third conference tournament title in program history, as well as the eighth conference regular season title given to the Ospreys with five of those total honors under Lucas. He will come into UNF and leave the Ospreys as the conference tournament and back-to-back regular season champions in his first and final seasons.
The two-time ASUN Coach of the Year cultivated some of the conference and region's best student-athletes in the sport. During his time at UNF, Lucas has produced:
- 1x ASUN Player of the Year
- 2x ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year
- 2x ASUN Doubles Pair of the Year
- 17x ASUN All-Conference selections
- 9x ASUN First Team All-ASUN selections
- 3x ASUN All-Freshmen selections
- 6x ASUN All-Academic Team selections
- 6x ASUN All-Tournament selections
- 16x ASUN Player of the Week selections
- 2x North Florida Most Improved Male Student-Athletes
- 7x College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team
UNF left no doubt during its undefeated ASUN stint this past season ending its season as No. 70 in the ITA team rankings. He also helped the doubles pair of Jonas Hartenstein and Rodrigo Crespo to a doubles rankings of No. 44, as well as Hartenstein to No. 118 in singles on his way to reaching the NCAA D-I Men's Tennis Championship tournament.
During his time in the Jacksonville area, Lucas not only helped build up the program's on-court and in the classroom performance, but he also oversaw some massive improvements to the UNF Tennis Complex. The upgrades were unveiled in 2024 with resurfacing to all 10 courts with the fencing being replaced around the lower four courts, LED broadcast-level lighting on all tennis courts, PlaySight video streaming, a new scoreboard, individual scoreboards on each competition court and a permanent sound system mounted to the scoreboard.
A national search will be commenced immediately to find the next head coach of North Florida men's tennis.
