Alan Ferguson enters the 2024-25 season as his twelfth season at the helm of the Limestone University men’s and women’s tennis programs after eleven very successful seasons thus far.
For the women’s program, they have seen winning seasons in the past ten-of-eleven years, which included the 2015 Conference Carolinas Championship; the first in the history of the program. The Saints completed a perfect 11-0 season that saw a program-record five named All-Conference, and Alexandra Boulbin was named the program’s first Conference Player of the Year. A total of 23 players have been named All-Conference in Ferguson’s first six seasons.
He also helped the women’s team make history when they defeated perennial conference champion Erskine College, snapping the Flying Fleet’s 63-match win streak against conference foes. The victory was also the program’s first ever over the Fleet.
For the men, they have posted eight winning seasons under Ferguson, which saw him guide the team to a runner-up finish in both the conference regular season and tournament in 2015. A total of 18 Saints have been named All-Conference over the last six seasons, which included a program-record five tabbed with the honor in the 2015 season. Tom Wagemans (2015), Guillermo Ortega (2016), and Federico Garnier (2017) were named Conference Freshman of the Year, while Garnier was also tabbed as the 2017 Conference Carolinas Player of the Year.
In 2019, Limestone took home the Conference Carolinas Regular Season title for both the men and the women. The men capped off the season by winning the 2019 Conference Carolinas Men's Tennis Championship to earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Tournament for the first time since 2013.
In 2018, the Saints finished the season ranked No. 27 nationally after posting an overall record of 14-7. Limestone won the Conference Carolinas regular season title after posting a perfect 10-0 mark. Ferguson was also named Conference Carolinas Men's Tennis Coach of the Year.
Ferguson has been named Conference Carolinas Women's Tennis Coach of the Year three times while he has earned Conference Carolinas Men's Coach of the Year once.
A 31-year collegiate coaching veteran, Alan Ferguson brings a wealth of coaching expertise to the Saints, including 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, six of which came at the Division I level.
Ferguson joined Limestone following nine highly successful years as an assistant coach at nearby Division I Furman University. In that role from 2005-13, he was instrumental in the program’s rise to prominence with three Southern Conference Regular Season and Tournament titles in 2006, 2008, and 2009. The Paladins also made NCAA Tournament appearances in each of those seasons. In 2007, they finished third in the league after knocking off No. 33 Kentucky and No. 45 Georgia Tech within a two-week time frame.
Prior to his time in Greenville, S.C., he served as an assistant coach at Division I Arkansas. Joining that program in 1999, Ferguson not only helped the Lady Razorbacks run a string of NCAA Tournament berths to six over his first three seasons, he played a key role in developing the first All-Americans in program history. In 1999, he helped Chin Bee Khoo and Maria Pavlidou become the first Arkansas women’s tennis players to accomplish that feat. That same season he was named Southwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
A native of North Little Rock, Ark., Ferguson cut his teeth in the coaching profession in nearby Spartanburg, S.C. at then Division II USC-Spartanburg. He was the head coach of both the men’s and women’s programs from 1989-97, taking them to new heights almost immediately. Inheriting an 11-9 men’s club, he quickly built it to an 18-4 mark just two years later before going 19-4 in 1992 and leading the Rifles to NCAA Division II Nationals.
As a result of that tremendous turnaround and the first-ever postseason berth in program history, Ferguson was named Division II South Region Coach of the Year. That same year he took over the women’s team and led them to a perfect 12-0 record to finish No. 10 in the nation and earn Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year honors.
On the men’s side, he would go on to lead the program to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 1995 (16-7) and 1996 (16-6) before finishing with a 117-55 overall record in 1997. The 1996 season would be the team’s second trip to nationals and mark the sixth in a seven-season span that the team ended the season nationally ranked.
That stretch included No. 23 in 1990, No. 11 in 1991, No. 5 in 1992, No. 10 in 1993, and No. 12 in both 1995 and 1996. He also guided the team to five NCAA Tournament victories in those three appearances. On the women’s side, he posted a career 40-47 record with the undefeated season in 1992 and the first NCAA Division II Tournament appearance in 1995.
Ferguson is married to the former Stephanie Dacus of Greenville, S.C.
