Tyson Thomas was named the third head coach in Omaha men’s tennis history in 2014.
Omaha finished the 2017-18 season with a 10-17 record and a 1-5 mark in Summit League action…The Mavericks won three-straight matches in March against Lamar and two against Prairie View A&M…Omaha also picked up a Summit League match against South Dakota State.
Razvan Grigorescu and Abdoul Ouattara earned All-Summit League honors…Ouattara’s 16-7 mark in singles was the best of any player in the league…Grigorescu picked up his fifth career Player of the Week honor.
In 2016-17, the Mavericks advanced to the Summit League Tournament Championship match before falling to Denver, 4-1…Omaha finished the season with a 9-14 overall record and a 2-2 mark in the Summit League…UNO picked up the program's first-ever win over Nebraska, 4-3, on Jan. 21…the Mavericks also topped IUPUI, North Dakota, Oral Roberts and IUPUI.
The Mavericks set a program record with 11 duel wins and advanced to the Summit League tournament finals against Denver. Freshmen Razvan Grigorescu, Louis-Jonas Heizlsperger and Nathan Reekie each garnered All-Summit League honors…Grigorescu earned four Summit League Player of the Week honors and was named the league's Newcomer of the Year…Grigorescu had an impressive freshman campaign finishing 19-6 and defeated three players from Power Five conferences…he also became the first Omaha men's tennis player to earned a national ranking (highest rank No. 53) and to qualify for the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships in Athens, Ga.
During the 2015-16 season, Omaha showed improvement finishing with an 11-15 overall mark and a 2-3 record in the Summit League. The Mavericks qualified for their first Summit League Tournament, falling to No. 48 Denver in the semifinals. UNO posted two wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff and had a victory over South Dakota State.
Erik Anderson earned the program's first-ever Summit League Player of the Week award. Matt Dunn, Marko Minic and Alex Woodward each finished with eight wins to lead the team. The doubles tandem of Dunn and John Ellis produced a 7-4 record.
In his first season as head coach, Thomas started laying the foundations of Omaha tennis. The Mavericks finished 3-21 (1-5 Summit League) overall, including losses to six rated programs. The doubles pairing of Colin Buckley and Nathan Greteman posted a team-best 5-15 record at No. 1, while Buckley posted four wins at the top singles spot.
Thomas joined the UNO men's and women's tennis programs as an assistant coach for the 2014 season.
A Columbus, Neb., native, Thomas had an extensive collegiate playing background at the University of Nebraska-Kearney and spent eight years traveling around the world teaching the game of tennis to the global youth.
While playing collegiate tennis at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Thomas gained both singles and doubles all-conference honors in his junior and senior seasons. Thomas was a member of UNK's first conference championship team and helped the Lopers earn their first-ever berth in the NCAA Sweet 16.
After graduating from UNK in 2005, Thomas coached at the Stanford Nike Summer Camp. He then began working for Peter Burwash International Tennis Management Company, where he earned the coveted “Rookie of the Year” award. While a member of PBI, Thomas coached at and managed programs in Palm Springs and Carmel, Calif.; St. John, USVI; Seoul, South Korea; Beijing, China; Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica and Abu Dhabi and Dubai, UAE. In 2008, Thomas coached a student to win the Girls U18 Abu Dhabi ITF Junior Championship.
As a member of the Peace Corps, Thomas then moved to Mali, West Africa from 2009 to 2011, where he co-directed the creation of the Malian National Junior Tennis Center. While there, he trained Mali's top male and female junior athletes and accompanied them to International tournaments in Accra, Ghana and Dakar and Winneba, Senegal. In his second year, Thomas coached Malian Seydou Diallo to win the boy's U18 category at the ITF West African Junior Championships.
