The ninth head coach in the history of the Northern Illinois University women's tennis program, Tanya [Gombera] Mahefu enters her fifth season at the helm of the Huskie program in 2018-19 as a talented young coach with great familiarity of the Mid-American Conference.
The 2016-17 was NIU's most successful season to date under Mahefu. The Huskies finished the season 10-12 and 4-4 in the MAC. NIU qualified for the 2018 MAC Tennis Championships for the first time since 2012, earning the No. 5 seed. She coached a pair of first-team All-MAC selection in Adey Osabouhein and Raven Neely and NIU's first MAC Freshman of the Year in Neely.
Mahefu's debut season was nothing short of a resounding success as she led NIU to a winning season, including MAC victories over Bowling Green and Toledo, with a four-win improvement over the previous season. She also coached the first Huskie to ever win MAC Player of the Year in senior Nelle Youel, who went undefeated with a 20-0 (8-0 MAC) record in singles and became NIU's all-time career wins leader as well.
Mahefu, a former tennis standout at the University of Akron, comes to NIU and returned to the MAC after spending two seasons as an assistant coach for the men's and women's tennis teams at the University of North Dakota. At UND, she helped the women's tennis team contend for a spot in the Big Sky Tournament, coached the school's first women's All-Big Sky team selection and oversaw a significant improvement in the newly started men's tennis program.
Prior to her time at North Dakota, Mahefu served as interim head coach at the University of Southern Mississippi for the 2012 season. This promotion followed her time as a graduate assistant coach at USM from 2010-12 where she recruited international players and aided in the day-to-day operations for the Golden Eagles, in addition to her on-court coaching duties. She also spent one season as the head tennis coach at Malone University in Canton, Ohio and served as the tennis marketing director at the Towpath Tennis Center.
Mahefu enjoyed a successful tennis playing career after growing up as a tennis prodigy in her native country of Zimbabwe.
She represented Zimbabwe in the Africa Junior Championships and Zimbabwe Schools Team. Mahefu won a silver medal at the All-Africa Games in Nigeria in 2003 and also represented her native country at the Afro-Asia Games. She competed in many International Tennis Federation (ITF) events and reached an ITF ranking of 453rd in the world.
Mahefu is also no stranger to the Mid-American Conference, having been a four-year letterwinner at Akron. She earned second team All-MAC honors and finished her collegiate career with the Zips ranked in the top 10 in school history in combined singles and doubles victories. She received the MAC's Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award on two separate occasions and served on Akron's Student-Athlete Advisory Council Board.
A 2009 graduate of Akron, Mahefu earned her bachelor's degree in business administration there before receiving her master's degree in sports management from Southern Miss in 2011.
She is married to Pfungwa Mahefu and the couple has a daughter, Jessica.
