Caitlyn Williams - Tennis Coach

Caitlyn Williams

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
cwill121@utm.edu
Phone:
731-881-7683

Caitlyn Williams, who achieved a national top-10 doubles ranking during her playing career at the University of Tennessee, was named the ninth head tennis coach in Skyhawk history on Jan. 6, 2020. The 2022-23 campaign marks her fourth season at the helm of the UT Martin tennis program.

Last season, Williams led the Skyhawks to their best single-season Ohio Valley Conference winning percentage since 2017-18 as UT Martin dispatching league foes Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Tennessee State. The Skyhawks produced three OVC weekly award winners (two-time Player of the Week Aziza Aubin, one Doubles Team of the Week honor with Aubin/Amelia Campbell) and made the program's first OVC Championship tournament appearance since 2019.

In the classroom, UT Martin posted a 3.76 cumulative Grade Point Average during the 2021-22 campaign. All eight Skyhawks nabbed Athletic Director's Honor Roll accolades in both the fall and spring semesters.

During her first full season (2020-21) in charge of the Skyhawks, Williams oversaw a UT Martin squad that progressively improved as the season went along. The Skyhawks pushed eventual Ohio Valley Conference champion Austin Peay to the limit (falling 4-3 on April 3) before accumulating back-to-back league victories against Jacksonville State (April 9) and at Eastern Illinois (April 16). The win over Eastern Illinois was the program's first win in Charleston since April 5, 2014.

Under Williams, Jillian Niedzialowski became the first player in school and OVC history to be named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Universal Tennis Rating Division I National Player of the Week when she accomplished that feat on April 14, 2021. She joined previous winners from schools such as Arkansas, FIU, James Madison, Louisville, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, South Carolina, TCU, UAB, USF, USC, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.

Off the court, the Skyhawks combined for an impressive 3.69 team Grade Point Average during the 2020-21 academic year. UT Martin also won its third OVC Team Academic Achievement Award (first since 2013-14), producing the highest percentage of student-athletes with at least a 3.25 GPA out of any other conference school in their sport.

Williams collected her first collegiate head coaching victory with a 6-1 road triumph at Alabama A&M on Feb. 9, 2020, shortly before her first season as head coach was cut short because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

A Knoxville, Tenn. native, Williams played for the Lady Vols from 2011-15 under co-head coaches Mike Patrick and Sonia Hahn-Patrick. She compiled a 57-35 career record in doubles (.620 winning percentage) while also contributing a 29-25 singles mark (.537). She was responsible for three doubles titles and one singles championship during her time at Tennessee.

Williams rose as high as No. 9 in the national doubles rankings on Feb. 28, 2012 alongside her playing partner Natalie Pluskota. She concluded her illustrious collegiate career by taking part in the 2015 NCAA National Championships alongside Joanna Henderson in doubles, capping off a season where she went 17-5 in doubles.

Williams was honored by the Southeastern Conference on two different occasions. She became just the 11^th Tennessee player to nab SEC Player of the Week accolades on April 9, 2014 while she also earned SEC Freshman of the Week honors on March 7, 2012 – becoming only the sixth different Lady Vol to secure that title.

Off the court, Williams tallied ITA Scholar Athlete mentions in 2013 and 2015 and was a three-time SEC Honor Roll recipient (2013-15). She graduated cum laude (3.65 overall Grade Point Average) with a degree in Linguistics from Tennessee in 2015.

Williams attended Alpha Omega Academy in Knoxville, where she was hailed as a five-star blue chip recruit by TennisRecruiting.net. She was ranked as one of the top-15 high school players in the nation and was in the top-50 in the ITF Girls 18 world rankings. That came after she was the No. 1 ranked player in the United States in the Girls 16 rankings. She also took part in the 2010 Junior French Open and won a pair of WTA futures double championships, capturing titles at prestigious events held in Sumter, SC and Antalya, Turkey.

Following her collegiate graduation, Williams played professionally on the WTA Tour for one season, achieving a professional doubles ranking of #668. Since May 2017, she has served as a tennis instructor at Cedar Bluff Racquet Club in Knoxville.

Tennis has always been deep-rooted with Williams, as her family was named the Tennessee Tennis Family of the Year in 2006. Her grandfather Mike DePalmer was the head men’s coach at Tennessee from 1980-94 and is enshrined in the ITA Hall of Fame. Her mother Michelle DePalmer-Williams was an All-American for the Lady Vols from 1980-84 before entering the professional ranks, ranking as high as 90^th in the world on the WTA Tour. Her father Bob played tennis at Duke from 1983-87 and accrued All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors twice in his storied career. Her brother Rhyne played professionally after earning All-American accolades twice at Tennessee from 2009-11 while her sister Jennifer enjoyed an All-Big South Conference career at Birmingham Southern College from 2002-06.