Rob Bareford Named Head Men’s Tennis Coach

Courtesy of New Mexico Athletics – 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Rob Bareford, who won a pair of conference titles with Radford and later coached for two seasons with Montana State, has been named the new head men’s tennis coach for the New Mexico Lobos, announced Vice President/Director of Athletics Eddie Nuñez.

Bareford brings with him a 62-37 career record (.626) to the Duke City through six years as a head coach at Radford (2018-22) and Montana State (2022-24).

“We are excited to have Rob join the Lobo Family,” said Nuñez. “He brings a history of success and developing student-athletes, and he has done a great job of building programs.”

Bareford comes to UNM from a two-year stint in which nearly his entire first season was a wash as injuries knocked down the Bobcats to just three healthy bodies.  After having most of the 2023 season canceled, he was able to get the Bobcats to bounce back with nine wins and a 4-4 record in Big Sky play in 2024. Overall the Bobcats had two singles players honored with All-Big Sky honors and one doubles team as well.

He spent four seasons at Radford, going 53-23 overall, a .697 winning percentage with a pair of NCAA Tournament Appearances and a pair of Big South tournament titles.  After inheriting a Highlander program that was just 43-81 in the six previous seasons, Bareford led the Highlanders to winning seasons in all four seasons.  After going 10-12 and winless in conference play the year prior to his arrival in 2018, Radford went 17-7 and 5-3 in Big South play in 2019, defeating No. 2-seed Campbell 4-2 in the Big South final for a conference title and a berth into the NCAA Tournament, where Radford played No. 14 Tennessee in the opening round.

Radford seemed destined to a second straight NCAA Tournament, going 10-1 before having the 2020 season halted by the COVID pandemic.

After going 12-7 in 2021 and losing 4-3 in the Big South Championship, Bareford led the Highlanders to a 14-8 mark in 2022 and a second Big South title as Radford against downed Campbell, this time with the Camels as the one-seed, winning 4-3.  Radford advanced to the NCAA Tournament, falling to No. 9 Wake Forest in the opening round.

Overall, at Radford, Bareford coached 26 ITA Scholar-Athletes and nine All-Big South singles players and five All-Big South doubles teams.  Included in that is Demis Taramonlis, who was a three-time all-conference honoree in singles and doubles and was the 2022 Big South Player of the Year.

For three seasons, Bareford was officially the Director of Tennis, where he also served as the head coach of the women’s team at Radford for three seasons, going 27-25 overall from 2020-22.