Sopel Promoted to Head Men's and Women's Tennis Coach

by YSU

Thursday, Sep 5, 2013 7:21 am

Youngstown State Director of Athletics Ron Strollo announced on Wednesday that Mickael Sopel has been named the Penguins' Men's and Women's Tennis Head Coach. Sopel served as an assistant last year at YSU.

Sopel replaces Mark Klysner who recently was hired as the men's tennis coach at Illinois State.

A native of Paris, France, Sopel joined the program last year and helped guide both programs to their best seasons in years.

During the 2012-13 campaign, the program's combined to win 28 matches with the women winning 15 and the men 13. For the women, it was the most dual wins in a season since 1998-99 while the men's 13 victories for the most since 1990-91.

The women advanced to the Horizon League Championship match in 2013 for the second time in school history. Paula de Man was named the Horizon League's Player and Newcomer of the Year following a 23-1 campaign. Marta Burak and Margarita Sadovnikova joined de Man on the Horizon League's all-conference first team. The trio combined to go 21-0 during league play and ended the year winning 42 consecutive matches. Burak's 28 wins for the season set the school mark for wins in a season while all three players won more than 20 matches.

The men finished third in the conference for the second straight year. YSU was led by first-team All-Horizon League pick Silviu Mistreanu and the conference's Newcomer of the Year, Sebastian Hagn. The Penguins picked up their first win over UIC since joining the league and won at Wright State for the first time in nearly 30 years. The Guins defeated the Flames 4-3 in the Horizon League tournament, just the program's second postseason dual win since joing the conference.

Prior to joining the YSU staff he was an assistant coach at Gonzaga. Sopel's sister, Myriam, is the head coach at Idaho.

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