Nino Mebuke, an upcoming coach with great familiarity with the Mid-American Conference, is in her second year as the graduate assistant coach for the NIU women's tennis team.
In her first season, Mebuke assisted in one of the most historic seasons in the history of Huskie women's tennis, coaching and serving as a practice partner for 2015 MAC Player of the Year Nelle Youel, who went undefeated in singles during the spring with a 20-0 record and an 8-0 mark in MAC matches to become the first Huskie to earn that honor. Mebuke's help also guided the Huskies to an 8-0 start and a winning season that resulted in a four-win improvement as a team over the previous year.
Before coming to NIU, Mebuke played her collegiate tennis in the MAC at Eastern Michigan, where she studied psychology and was a four-year letter winner for the Eagles. During her playing carer at Eastern Michigan, she compiled 68 singles wins and 80 doubles wins for a combined total of 148 career victories. She was a 2014 second team All-MAC selection and went undefeated in the MAC in doubles that season with partner Klara Supejova.
A native of Tbilisi, Georgia in eastern Europe, Mebuke attended high school at the Georgian English-Spanish School and was ranked No. 1 in the Georgian Under-16 rankings and featured as high as No. 18 in the European Tennis Association rankings while reaching the national finals twice in the Under-14 and Under-16 divisions.
