Ashleigh Antal | Associate Head Coach

Ashleigh Antal is in her first season as Associate Head Coach at Clemson after joining the Tigers in June 2023.

Antal has an illustrious resume as both a player and a coach. Graduating from Vanderbilt in 2016, she played four seasons with the Commodores and won the 2015 team National Championship. She was an ITA All-American in 2015 and served as the captain of her team from 2013-15.

Following her playing career, she began coaching women’s tennis at California State University Long Beach from 2018-2020, where her team won the 2019 Big West title.

In November of 2020, she took over as the head women’s tennis coach at Appalachian State. She led the team to its first NIT selection, marking the first time the program has played postseason.

Before Long Beach State, Antal put forth a stellar playing career at national powerhouse Vanderbilt. She played a pivotal role in the Commodores’ first national championship in 2015, as well as the 2015 SEC title. She was a four-year starter and a two-year captain while achieving a career-high ranking of No. 9 in doubles and No. 101 in singles. She reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA doubles tournament and was named an NCAA Doubles All-American her senior season.

She finished with 204 total singles and doubles wins with 19 nationally-ranked wins. She won at least 20 singles and doubles contests every season, including a career-high 35 doubles and 28 singles wins her senior year. Her milestone 100th career singles win was key as she posted the first Commodores point in their 4-2 win over UCLA in the national championship match.

Antal graduated from Vanderbilt with a double major in psychology and English with a concentration in creative writing. She earned four SEC Academic Honor Roll awards and was a 2015 ITA National Academic Award winner.

In addition to her studies, Antal co-authored a Journal of Clinical Psychiatry published study on the treatment of mood and cognitive symptoms in late-life depression.

Outside the classroom, Antal co-founded the Vanderbilt Undergrad Raising Autism Awareness program during her freshman year.

A native of Wilmington, N.C., Antal was a five-star high school recruit and nationally ranked No. 30 in her graduating class.

“I would like to thank Coach Saia for the opportunity to join the Clemson family!” said Antal on her new role at Clemson. “It’s an honor to represent the Tigers and to help forward the tradition of excellence Clemson Athletics is accustomed to. I’m thrilled to be able to compliment Coach Saia’s vision of returning this program to championship contention, and to reach new heights with our fantastic group of student athletes.”

Tom Rees | Associate Head Coach

Tom Rees joined the Clemson staff in June 2023 under head coach Boomer Saia. Most recently, he served as Head Coach at Incarnate Word where he led the program to its two best seasons in school history.

Rees played collegiately at UNC Asheville from 2009-2012 before playing on the ITF professional circuit from 2012-16. During that time, he also served as the assistant men’s and women’s tennis coach at University of North Georgia from 2012-14 and the head men’s and women’s tennis coach at University of Illinois Springfield.

Following his professional playing career, he accepted the head coaching position of the men’s and women’s teams at Lenoir-Rhyne University. He led both teams to their first ever national rankings.

In 2019, he became the assistant women’s tennis coach at Kansas State until June, 2021 when he took over as the head women’s tennis coach at Incarnate Word. There, he won the 2022 ITA Texas Regional Doubles Title to qualify for nationals, while also coaching the Southland Conference Player, Freshman and Newcomer of the Year.

At Kansas State, Rees helped lead the Wildcats to as high as No. 38 in the college rankings; K-State also turned in the 25th-ranked recruiting class in 2021.

Prior to Kansas State, Rees was the head coach of both the men’s and women’s tennis programs at Lenoir-Rhyne from 2016-19, leading both teams to their first national rankings in school history. He guided multiple student-athletes to national rankings and All-South Atlantic Conference (SAC) selections, while also leading the team to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic award and ITA Southeast Region community service awards.

Rees spent two summers (2017 and 2018) as an ATP Tour coach, leading Rubin Statham to a New Zealand No. 1 ranking and a top-300 ATP Pro ranking. He also guided Marcos Giron to a top-75 ATP Pro ranking.

As a head coach of both men’s and women’s programs at Illinois-Springfield from 2014-2016, Rees recruited the eventual 2015 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Women’s Freshman of the Year and guided both the men’s and women’s teams to program-high win totals.

From 2012-14, Rees played on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) professional circuit in tournaments across Europe and the U.S.

He started his coaching career as an assistant coach at North Georgia in 2012. There, he helped the men’s program to a No. 23 national ranking and a spot in the NCAA Championships, while also setting a new program high in wins totals on the women’s side. Rees coached multiple All-Americans, nationally ranked student-athletes and all-conference selections en route to being named the 2014 ITA Southeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year.

Rees earned a Bachelor’s in French with a minor in management and cum Laude honors at the University of North Carolina-Asheville in 2012. He obtained his Master’s in Public Administration in 2014 at North Georgia.

Rees was a three-year letterwinner for the Bulldogs, leading the team to a second-place finish in the Big South Conference. He was a Big South All-Conference selection and the league’s No. 2 doubles champion.

Prior to UNC-Asheville, Rees played one season at Tusculum University in the No. 1 singles and doubles flights, helping the Pioneers to a No. 28 national ranking and the SAC Tournament finals.