Ashleigh Antal

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.”