Gary Victor
Matador head coach Gary Victor begins his 15th season with the Northridge women's tennis program in 2012.
Led by a strong group of returners, Victor and the Matadors produced another season full of milestones in 2012. Victor won his 200th career match, a 7-0 sweep over Gonzaga, as the team finished 12-9 overall and 3-5 in Big West play. On the court, seniors Jennifer Sher and Nigora Sirojiddinova earned All-Big West Singles Team honors, while the tandems of Sher and Sabrina Man-Son-Hing and Sirojiddinova and Anna Yang recieved All-Big West Doubles Team awards. The Matadors recorded notable victories over UC Santa Barbara, Pacific, LMU, San Diego State, UTEP, Furman and Portland throughout the year.
The 2011 season represented yet another memorable campaign for Victor and the Matadors. The team finished the season with a 16-10 overall record, but made waves in the Big West Tournament by knocking off a nationally ranked Cal Poly squad in the tournament’s quarterfinals. The team also posted notable victories over a nationally ranked San Diego State squad on a neutral court, Nevada, LMU, Pacific and Columbia. Individually, Victor saw Brooke Doane earn her third-straight All-Big West Doubles First Team award, teaming with Jennifer Sher to go 16-2 on the season. Both Sher and Doane also earned All-Big West Singles First Team honors and Maria Pistalu received All-Big West Doubles Honorable Mention for her work with Doane.
Victor and the Matadors turned in another impressive spring campaign in 2010, finishing with a 12-8 overall record and 4-5 mark and fifth-place finish in the Big West. The Matadors recorded impressive victories over No. 60 Washington State, Wyoming, Hawai'i and at UC Davis and Pacific. Individually, the team saw several new names join the ranks in the school's history. Nigora Sirojiddinova finished 16-3 in singles action, the fourth-best winning percentage in school history. Brooke Doane continued to play outstanding No. 1 doubles, earning All-Big West First Team honors with Anna Yang, her third partner in three years. Doane also played well at No. 1 singles, earning her first career win over a nationally ranked opponent and earnng All-Big West Second Team honors. Finally, Nina Jawoworksi also received Second Team honors in singles for the second-straight year after a solid season at the top two draws. Finally, she and Whitney Paluch amassed a 13-6 doubles mark at No. 2, earning Honorable Mention accolades.
In addition to his duties at Northridge, Victor helped guide the San Fernando Valley Competition Training Center to a team championship in the 2009 Southern California CTC Team Cup. The title was the San Fernando Valley's first in the history of the event. The team, comprised of children from ages nine to 13, defeated squads from Bakersfield and San Gabriel Valley to reach the semifinals, where they recorded a win against the contingent from San Diego. CSUN women's tennis assistant coach Zbynek Mlynarik served as an assistant coach on the squad as well. Victor was also named the Chair of the Western Region ITA Coaches' Committee in the summer of 2009.
After serving on the committee for two years, the appointment will allow Victor to have extended responsibilities, which include handling regional rankings, voting on All-American candidates and representing the region during the NCAA Tournament selection process.
In the fall of 2008, Victor teamed with Mlynarik to capture the USPTA International Doubles Championship with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 1s Marcin Rozpedski and Andrew Scorteanu in the championship match. Victor and Mlynarik were an unseeded team in the tournament and also defeated the No. 2 team in the semifinals.
The 2009 season proved to be another banner year for CSUN and Coach Victor. The team finished the season with a 11-13 overall mark and a 5-5 finish in the Big West Conference. The doubles team of Brooke Doane and Evgeniya Vertesheva went 19-2 on the season at the No. 1 draw, earning All-Big West First Team honors in the process. Vertesheva then went 11-12 in No. 1 singles play to earn a spot on the All-Big West Singles First Team and Nina Jaworoski's 14-8 record, primarily at the No. 2 draw, helped her earn a place on the All-Big West Singles Second Team.
In 2008, the Matadors posted a 14-8 overall record and a 7-3 mark against Big West opponents. The Matadors placed third for the second-straight year at the Big West Championships and placed Kanykey Koichumanova, Canna Furuta, Brooke Doane and Victoria Brymer on the All-Big West team. Additionally, Koichumanova teamed with Brooke Doane to compile an 18-2 doubles record for the season.
Victor led the 2007 team to its highest final national ranking since 2003 and finished 11-7 and tied for third in the Big West Conference.Behind the play of All-Big West honorees senior Silvia Gutierrez and juniors Canna Furuta and Kanykey Koichumanova, CSUN finished 69th in the final according to the final FILA/College Tennis Online Poll.
The 2006 Matadors finished 16-7 overall record and a third-place finish at the 2006 Big West Championships. Victor holds an overall record of 133-93 at Northridge and coached four Matadors to All-Big West Conference honors in 2006. The quartet of Canna Furuta, Silvia Gutierrez, Kanykey Koichumanova and YuYu Myinttun each earned spots on the all-league squad.
In 2004, Victor earned his 100th win at CSUN with a 5-2 triumph over Lewis and Clark State on Jan. 30, 2004. Northridge ended the 2003 campaign with a 14-9 overall record and finished as the 65th-ranked team in the nation, the highest year-end ranking in school history. Victor was named Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2001 after the Matadors (22-9) won the Big Sky Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.
A Matador assistant during the 1995-96 season, Victor was hired as the head coach of the CSUN women's tennis team on Aug. 29, 1997. He was later named the Director of Tennis on Oct. 15, 1998.
During his collegiate years, Victor was a four-year starter at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., playing at the No. 1 singles position during the 1989 and 1990 seasons. During those years, he defeated five All-Americans and reached the Atlantic 10 Conference singles finals. He was the Most Valuable Player for the Scarlet Knights in 1989 and '90 and was also a two-time team captain. Victor graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and mass media from Rutgers in 1991 and was on the Dean's List in 1988 and '91.
After graduation, Victor worked as a producer of the American Gladiators and Gladiators 2000 television series. He has since earned 24 credits towards his master's degree in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling at Northridge. Victor earned a degree as a specialist in the USTA's High Performance Coaching Program in 2001. He was also the head coach of the San Fernando Valley Competition Training Center Team.
Victor was named USPTA's California College Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003 and coached the Southern California 12's Zonals Champions in July 2005.
Victor and his wife Shirley have two children, Emma (7) and Kyra (5), and reside in Thousand Oaks.
