Denise Dy - Women's Tennis Coach

Photo by: C. Morgan Engel/NCAA Photos

Denise Dy

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
denisedy@mail.fresnostate.edu
Phone:
559-278-4422

THE DY FILE

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Hometown: San Jose, Calif.

EDUCATION

Washington (2012): Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (Minor: Military Science)
Arizona (2021): Master of Science in Entrepreneurship

COACHING EXPERIENCE

Fresno State (2020-present): Head Coach
Arizona (2018-20): Assistant Coach
United States Tennis Association [USTA] (2015, 2018 & 2019): National Team Coach for the Pacific Northwest and Southwest Region
Washington (2016-18): Assistant Coach
Iowa (2014-16): Assistant Coach

PLAYING EXPERIENCE

Washington (2008-12)
Philippine National Team Player (10 years)

Last Updated: June 13, 2025

Denise Dy will begin her sixth season entering the 2025-26 campaign as the 11th head coach for the Fresno State women’s tennis program.

In 2025, Dy coached the Bulldogs to a 14-9, 6-4 MW record and landed the 'Dogs in the quarterfinal spot of the Mountain West Championships. Fresno State made four appearances in the ITA Top 75 team ranking this spring, as well as a No. 7 ranking in the Northwest region.

Dy saw her most successful set of Bulldogs cap their careers off, as Jittakoat and Magrini earned All-MW Doubles. While Magrini and Pizzoni earned All-MW Singles honors. Jittakoat was also named the ITA's Northwest Cissie Leary Sportsmanship award.

In 2024, Dy led her Bulldogs to a 10-13, 4-4 MW record, going undefeated at home against conference opponents. Dy coached Carolina Piferi to earn All-MW Singles nod after sporting a perfect 8-0 conference record and 19-4 overall singles record this season.

In her first three seasons in the Central Valley, Fresno State sported a 45-23 overall record while leading the program back into the national and regional rankings, which included 2023 NCAA Doubles Championships and ITA Kickoff Weekend appearances and the Bulldogs captured the 2022 Mountain West regular season championship with a perfect 10-0 record in conference play.

In her first three seasons, Dy has coached a Bulldog to MW Player of the Year honors - Yinglak [Pang] Jittakoat (2022 & 2023) and Dalia Ahmed (2021). Dy also earned MW Coach of the Year honors in 2022.

Along with collecting back-to-back conference player of the year honors, Jittakoat was named to the All-MW Singles and Doubles Teams, and was named the MW Player of the Week a league-best four times in 2023. Cristina Flaquer (All-MW Singles) and Matilde Magrini (All-MW Doubles) were also recognized with all-conference accolades in 2023.

Jittakoat and Magrini finished the 2023 spring season ranked No. 45 nationally in the final 2023 ITA Division I Women’s Collegiate Tennis Doubles Rankings, sponsored by Tennis-Point, and reached the Round of 32 in the 2023 NCAA Doubles Championship. Earlier in the season, Jittakoat and Magrini upset No. 1-seeded Ivana and Carmen Corley of Oklahojma in the ITA Doubles Main Draw Round of 32 during the 2022 ITA Women’s All-American Championships.

In 2022, Jittakoat also earned MW All-Singles Team honors and teamed up with Matilde Magrini to be named to the 2022 MW All-Doubles Team. Additionally, Jittakoat was named the ITA x University Tennis Division I Player of the Week (April 7, 2022) and MW Player of the Week three times, while Magrini earned a conference-best five MW Freshman of the Week awards.

Ahmed, who was also named to the 2021 All-MW singles and doubles teams, delivered a season for the record books – finishing 15-2 in singles play, including an 11-1 mark at the No. 1 singles position (a perfect 7-0 in Mountain West contests), and 14-3 overall in doubles, which included a 12-2 mark at No. 1 doubles for the Bulldogs.

Ahmed earned multiple conference player of the week honors during 2021 spring season and won her last 10 decisions – all at No. 1 singles – and also went 12-2 at the No. 1 doubles lost and ended the regular season on a six-match winning streak in doubles play. Along with Ahmed two weekly MW accolades, Fresno State's Cristina Flaquer earned MW Player of the Week honors in March 2021.

Additionally, three other members of the Bulldogs' rotation won at least 75 percent of their single contests in Mountain West play in 2021 - Ella Husrefovic (5-1), A.C. Hummel (6-2) and Carolina Piferi (8-1).

As a team, in singles, Fresno State finished 69-32 overall (31-13 in MW play), which included a 14-4 record at No. 1 singles, while in doubles, the Bulldogs were 32-20 overall, which included a 15-3 record at No. 1 doubles.

Denise Dy was hired to return home to her home state of California in December 2020 after a rising collegiate coaching career at Iowa, Washington and Arizona. As a player, Dy was a three-time All-American at Washington – who was nationally ranked as high as No. 3 in singles and No. 6 in doubles – and competed professionally and was national team member in the Philippines.

Prior to coming to the San Joaquin Valley, Dy had most recently served as Ryan Stotland’s assistant coach at Arizona, where she spent the last two seasons. Before taking the job at Arizona in 2018, Stotland won two Mountain West championships (2014 and 2018) during his six-year tenure (2013-18) as Fresno State’s head women’s tennis coach.

In her first year at Arizona, Dy helped lead the Wildcats to a 12-12 record, including three wins over Pac-12 programs (Utah twice and Oregon). The Wildcats finished off the 2019 season ranked No. 49 in the country and No. 6 in the Southwest by the ITA, which was Arizona's highest national ranking in program history since 2011. Dy's second season in Tucson was cut short due to COVID-19, but she helped lead the Wildcats to a winning record of 9-7 during the 2020 spring season.

While on staff for the Huskies, Washington reached a Top 25 ranking and earned an NCAA Berth during her first year following a five-year absence. The 2017 Huskies team finished with the most wins in program history since 2009 and for only second time in history had five student-athletes that recorded 20 or more singles wins in one season. Five players reached a Top 25 singles or doubles ranking, with one All-American.

Before Washington, Dy spent two years in the Big Ten at Iowa for two seasons as the assistant coach, which included helping guide sophomores Zoe Douglas and Anastasia Reimchen to a Top 50 doubles ranking. Douglas graduated with a Big Ten Medal of Honor to end her career.

After graduating from Washington in 2012, she spent time working at a variety of high performance tennis clubs with one year as the Director of High Performance juniors, while continuing her playing career as part of the Philippine National Team. She brings an immense amount of international experience and success having won a mixed doubles Gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games in 2015 and 2011, as well as a silver in doubles and bronze in singles at the 2009 Southeast Asian Games. In addition, she served as a member of the Fed Cup team for years.

As a student-athlete at Washington, Dy was a three-time All-American and was ranked as high as No. 3 in the country in singles and No. 6 in the country in doubles. She became the first Husky to reach the semifinals of three national tournaments, as she made the ITA National Indoor Championships semifinals in 2009 and 2011 (Now the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships), and the ITA All-American Championships semis in 2010. During her career at Washington, she helped the team reach the Round of 16 at the 2009 NCAA Championships, the second round the following two seasons and a team rank high of No. 15. She ended her career with a 0.77 winning percentage on dual matches and capped off a historic streak to end her career playing in the top 2 singles and doubles line-up throughout her career as she ranked in the ITA top-25 in every singles poll since January of her sophomore season. She received the 2011 National USTA/ITA Sportsmanship Award and the ITA Arthur Ashe Jr. Award for the Northwest Region and was the 1st Husky to win the ITA Northwest Regional Championship. She is a three-year team captain and Washington Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (WSAAC) member with one year in the executive office.

As a junior, Dy reached the Top 50 in the ITF Junior Rankings and participated in the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open Junior Tournaments. She also reached a high of 715 in the WTA Doubles Rankings, with two ITF Pro Doubles Titles and reaching the finals in an ITF Pro Singles. Prior to her career in the ITF circuit, she captured the prestigious Easter Bowl tournament and won the USTA Hard Courts Championship in doubles. In limited high school action, won the West Catholic Athletic League singles title as a member of the Saint Francis High School (Mountain View, CA) tennis team.

Dy graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Military Science and a master's degree in entrepreneurship from Arizona in 2021. She is currently certified as a Professional Level 1 Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) and United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA). She is an NCAA Women’s Coaches Academy graduate and attained a USTA High Performance Certification. She is also currently a Level 2 coach of the Global Tennis Coach Association (GPTCA).