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C-USA Co-Coach of the Year 2012
C-USA Coach of the Year 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
2013 Wilson/ITA Texas Region Coach of the Year

In 17 seasons at the helm of the Rice women's tennis program, Elizabeth Schmidt has built a tennis program that has reached unmatched heights at both the conference and national level.

In 2024-25, Rice returned to NCAA action after posting a 17-7 record and finished the season ranked 36^th, the Owls' highest ranking since the end of the 2016 season and Schmidt’s ninth top-40 finish. The Owls also hosted the inaugural American Conference Individual Championships at the George R. Brown Tennis Center and Divna Ratkovic won the first-ever conference singles championship.

Schmidt has guided the Owls to 10 NCAA appearances, the most for Rice in any team sport over that span, and six conference titles. Rice’s five consecutive Conference USA titles from 2013-17, which matched the longest consecutive postseason titles for any school in any sport (Houston men's golf from 1997-2001) at that time.

Her teams produced six Outstanding Singles and six Outstanding Doubles honorees at the C-USA Championships, while Schmidt earned four outright conference Coach of the Year nods and shared a fifth. One of the players who was responsible for a pair of both singles and doubles honors, in addition to a pair of C-USA Player of the Year honors (Natalie Beazant), was inducted into the C-USA Hall of Fame in 2020 and the Rice Hall of Fame in 2023.

Off the court, the Owls have been the model of academic excellence. They have posted a perfect score of 1,000 in the NCAA’s graduate success rate tabulations in each of her 17 seasons.

Led by C-USA Player of the Year Michaela Haet, the 2019 Owls recaptured the C-USA title by downing Middle Tennessee, FAU, and Old Dominion on their home court.

In 2017, Schmidt saw her Owls extend their run at the C-USA Championship by downing UTSA, North Texas, and FIU to finish the regular season with an 18-5 record. The highlight win of the regular season came when picked up their first win at Texas A&M since 2000 with a 4-1 win over the 15th ranked Aggies, Schmidt's highest-ranked road victory.

In 2016, the Owls defied the odds to become the first team to capture a fourth consecutive C-USA crown. After a strenuous slate of regular season matches, they swept to the crown by a combined 12-2 score, then added a 4-1 win over #31 Clemson in the first round of the NCAA Championship. Katherine Ip capped the season with a pair of wins at the NCAA Singles Championship, including an upset of the tournament's fourth seed in her first match, to join Natalie Beazant (2013 & 2015) as All-Americans under Schmidt.

Her 2015 Owls overcame another rugged early-season schedule to rise back into the national top 30 heading into NCAA action in addition to putting a fitting cap on a spectacular opening year for the GRBTC by capturing the Owls first C-USA Women's Tennis title at home when they downed Marshall. He colleagues in the conference honored her for a third consecutive year with their coach of the year award, after she shared the honor in 2012. The 2015 season was capped by senior Natalie Beazant becoming an All-America for the second time in her career.

In 2014, the Owls face a rugged schedule that included defending NCAA champion Stanford and emerged with a 9-7 mark against ranked teams, including a pair of wins over teams who were ranked in the top 20 at the time of the match. She led the Owls to a second straight finish in the top 20 of the ITA's final poll, ending the year ranked 23rd.

The 2014 season saw a pair of standouts, Dominique Harmath and Kimberly Anicete, who had anchored Schmidt's early recruiting efforts, complete their careers ranked in the Rice career top ten in dual singles wins. However, Schmidt addressed the loss of those two stalwarts by signing a pair of players (Lindsey Hodge and Savannah Durkin) who were ranked by Tennisrecruiting. Net as the 12th best class in the nation.

Schmidt's 2013 team Owls proved that their breakout 2012 season was no fluke, ending Tulsa's three-year reign as Conference USA Champions and earning the program's second automatic bid to the NCAA Tennis Championship. The Owls posted a 20-4 regular-season mark, a career-best for Schmidt, including a 10-4 record against ranked opponents.

For her efforts, she was honored by league coaches as the 2013 C-USA Coach of the Year as well as being one of 12 coaches honored by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association as 2013 Wilson/ITA Regional Coaches of the Year. Schmidt earned the honor for the Texas Region and was one of 12 finalists for the Wilson/ITA National Women's Tennis Coach of the Year award.

Schmidt led the Owls to an 18-9 mark in 2012, earning Rice's first trip to the NCAA Championship since 2006 with an at-large berth. The Owls earned their berth in part on reaching the C-USA title match for the first time in 20006 when they earned the league's automatic bid by winning the title.

The Owls then staged a pair of epic wins over two Top 20 programs (#18 Illinois & #16 Ole Miss) to earn a trip to Athens for the Sweet 16 in school history.

In 2011, the Owls closed out the season with a 14-10 record while maintaining a national ranking through an entire season for the first time since 2008.

In 2010, Rice finished with a 14-9 record, which included wins over then #18 Arkansas at home and a thrilling, come-from-behind win on the road vs. then #27 VCU. The Owls finished with a total of six wins over ranked opponents, three at home and three on the road. Of their nine losses, eight came to ranked opponents, and all but one came on the road.

Schmidt, who began her coaching career as an assistant at Rice from 2004-06, was named the program's third head coach on August 14, 2008.

In her first season as a head coach, Schmidt led the Owls to a 13-12 and reached the semifinals of the C-USA tournament after posting a pair of wins.

Schmidt returned to Rice, where she began her coaching career in 2006 as an assistant, after two seasons as an assistant at Notre Dame.

The Irish compiled a 50-13 record over the 2007 and 2008 seasons, including a program-best 28-4 mark and NCAA quarterfinal appearance in 2007. The Fighting Irish upended 13 Top-25 programs and ended the season with the No. 7 ranking. In 2008, the Fighting Irish went 22-9 and once again advanced to the NCAA Tournament and its recruiting class received a No. 3 ranking from TennisRecruiting.net.

Schmidt was instrumental in Rice's historic 2005-06 season, as the Owls reeled off three consecutive upsets to win the Conference USA tournament for the program's first-ever league championship. Rice became the first No. 7 seed ever to reach the title match of the C-USA tournament and knocked off top-seeded SMU, ending the Mustangs' 12-match winning streak. That earned Rice its first trip to the NCAA Championship since 1998, and the Owls finished 13-13 overall and ranked 66th in the nation (after peaking at 51st).

Career Coaching Record

Year	W	L	C-USA Finish	NCAA	Ranking
2008-09	13	12	Semifinals	--	--
2009-10	14	9	Semifinals	--	48
2010-11	14	10	Semifinals	--	71
2011-12	18	9	Finals	Round of 16	27
2012-13	21	5	Champions	Round of 32	22
2013-14	18	7	Champions	Round of 32	23
2014-15	17	9	Champions	Round of 32	28
2015-16	14	10	Champions	Round of 32	34
2016-17	18	6	Champions	Round of 64	40
2017-18	15	9	Runner Up	Round of 64	44
2018-19	16	8	Champions	Round of 64	40
2019-20	6	7	Canceled due to COVID-19	Canceled due to COVID-19
2020-21	15	7	Semifinals	Round of 64	40
2021-22	15	8	Quarterfinals		54
2022-23	13	9	Finals		58
2023-24	12	10	Semifinals		59
2024-25	17	7	Semifinals	Round of 64	36
TOTAL	256	142	6 Championships	10 Appearances

Schmidt's first season at Rice saw the Owls go 16-9 - posting the most wins for Rice since 1997 - and crack the national top 30 before reaching the Western Athletic Conference tournament final for the first time and finishing ranked 51st.

Rice had several individual standouts during Schmidt's initial tenure - with four players earning all-conference accolades last season - but none more so than Blair DiSesa, who was the Conference USA Player of the Year and an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American in her final campaign, as well as the first Rice player since 1986 to earn an invitation to the NCAA Singles Championship. She was ranked as high as 31st in the nation.

Schmidt was a standout player at UCLA, earning All-America accolades in doubles in 1996-97 and finishing that season ranked 16th in the nation in partnered play and 38th in singles. She was a two-time participant in the NCAA Singles Championship and an all-Pac-10 selection in 1997, 1998, and 1999.

Schmidt helped the Bruins to a pair of second-place finishes in the Pac-10 - matching the best results in program history - and trips to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in 1997 and 2000.

Three times a Pac-10 All-Academic honoree, she graduated with honors in 2000 with a degree in sociology. She was the 2000 women's recipient of the Pac-10 Postgraduate Scholarship, awarded annually to the league's top male and female student-athletes. Schmidt was twice honored with the ITA's Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship Award and won the regional Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award in 1999. She also completed her master's degree in public administration from the University of Houston in 2006.

Schmidt spent four years playing professionally, peaking at 137th in the WTA world doubles rankings (in 2003) and 380th in singles (in `02). She earned her only career title in the doubles draw of the ITF event in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2001, but also reached six other finals in doubles and advanced to the doubles semifinals a total of 23 times in her career. In 2003, she played in the doubles qualifying at The Championships Wimbledon.

Born Aug. 23, 1977, Schmidt is a native of Austin, Texas, and a 1996 graduate of Westlake High School. She was a three-time state singles champion and a Prince All-American during her prep career, helping Westlake to the 1992 team state title. She compiled high school records of 120-6 in singles and 62-4 in doubles and was as high as seventh in doubles and 26th in singles in the USTA national rankings.

Name	Title	Phone	Email Address
Elizabeth Schmidt	Head Coach	348-6035	eschmidt@rice.edu
Blair Shankle	Associate Head Coach
Jeanette Mireles	Assistant Coach

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