Kim Bruno - Women's Tennis Coach - Michigan State University Athletics

Photo by: Sarah Smith

Kim Bruno

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
brunokim@ath.msu.edu
Phone:
432-0636

Michigan State women’s tennis head coach Kim Bruno enters her 10th season at the helm of the Spartan women’s tennis program in 2025-26.

Bruno’s coaching record at Michigan State stands at 104-101, posting her 100th Victory for MSU on March 9, 2025, in MSU’s 4-2 upset of No. 44 Nebraska on the road. Bruno becomes the second Spartan women’s tennis coach to reach 100 wins, joining Heather Mactaggart (1986-99). The current Spartan head coach is just the second MSU head coach with double-digit seasons, joining Mactaggart’s 14 years.

Against Big Ten opposition, Bruno has led MSU to 34 wins. Bruno’s .507 winning percentage is the best among all Spartan women’s tennis coaches since Elaine Hatton had a .818 percentage from 1973-77.

Bruno led MSU to 13 wins in 2024-25, the most wins by the Spartans since 2019, Bruno’s third at the helm, with 15 wins, as MSU has equaled or improved on its season record in each of the last five seasons.

Of Michigan State’s 13 wins in 2024-25, four of them were over ranked opponents, including back-to-back upsets wins with a win at No. 44 Nebraska (4-2) on March 9, and a home upset over No. 33 Penn State (4-2) on March 15. MSU added upsets over No. 44 Northwestern (4-2) on March 28 and a win at No. 53 Purdue (4-3) on April 5.

MSU earned the No. 11 seed in the B1G Tournament, with the Spartans falling in a hard-fought clash with the Trojans of USC, the No. 6 seed.

The Spartans had three players earn Big Ten Postseason Awards. Senior Liisa Vehviläinen earned Second Team All-B1G honors, while freshman Amara Brahmbhatt was named to the All-Freshman Team, for MSU’s first-ever All-Freshman Team honor in the first year the league has had an All-Freshman team, while junior Matilde Morais earned the Sportsmanship Award. These were MSU’s first All-B1G awards since 2021 when Mary Lewis, current Spartan assistant coach, was a two-time First Team All-Big Ten honoree. Vehviläinen is the first MSU women’s tennis player to earn Second Team accolades since 1989, while Brahmbhatt is the Spartans’ first All-Freshman Team honoree.

Off the court, four Michigan State women’s tennis players were named Academic All-District®, as selected by College Sports Communicators. Juniors Matilde Morais and Issey Purser, along with sophomores Natalie Stasny and Hanna Tsitavets were the four Spartans recognized.

Additionally, seven MSU individual student-athletes also captured ITA Scholar-Athlete honors while the team earned the 2024-25 Division I ITA Academic Team accolades, Michigan State has now been named an ITA All-Academic Team for the 12th-consecutive year and the 17th time overall. The seven Spartan individuals included freshman Ellie Blackford, junior Sarah Fazlagic, junior Matilde Morais, redshirt-sophomore Oriana Parkins-Godwin, junior Issey Purser, sophomore Natalie Stasny and redshirt-sophomore Hanna Tsitavets, were all recognized as ITA Scholar-Athletes. For Fazlagic, this was her third time receiving the accolade, while Morais, Purser and Stasny all garnered the recognition for the second time. Blackford, Parkins-Godwin and Tsitavets were first-time recipients.

Further academic awards including five Spartans earning Academic All-B1G accolades in Fazlagic, Morais, Purser, Stasny and Vehviläinen. Morais and Stasny were two of the eight Spartans from all spring sports to post 4.0 GPAs. Fazlagic, Morais, Purser and Stasny also garnered Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recognition.

Under Bruno, Michigan State equaled or improved on its season record in each of the last four seasons, improving on a nine-win season in 2022-23 to tallying 10 wins in 2023-24, the Spartans’ first double-digit win total since 2019 with 15 wins.

The Spartans won four duals in a row as part of a spurt of winning five duals in six outings. Other highlights included freshman Ria Bhakta becoming the first Spartan since 2019 to be named the Big Ten Women’s Tennis Player of the Week, following her top 20 victory against Michigan’s No. 19-ranked Julia Fliegner. MSU’s season came to an end with a heartbreaking loss to Rutgers in the B1G Championships.

Off the court, 11 Spartans earned ITA Scholar-Athlete honors, along with six Academic All-Big Ten honorees and two Big Ten Distinguished Scholars. MSU also collected its 10th-straight and 15th overall ITA All-Academic Team award, including seventh in a row under Bruno.

Additionally, Nicole Conard was honored with the distinguished Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award, as presented by the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A).

MSU posted a nine-win season in 2022-23, highlighted by a 7-4 non-conference record that included a three-match win-streak in early February. The Spartans played a competitive Big Ten conference schedule culminating in the teams first victory over a ranked opponent since 2019 with a 4-3 win over #60 Penn State to conclude the regular season. The Spartans played in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament against Rutgers but could not hold off the Scarlet Knights, ultimately falling in the first round 1-5 to finish the 2022-23 campaign.

The Spartans accomplished a seven-win season in 2021-22, highlighted by Mary Lewis' recognition as the ITA Cissie Leary Sportsmanship Award winner at the national level, only the second Spartan to receive that accolade in the program's history. Under Bruno's leadership, MSU dominated in the non-conference portion of the schedule and played a competitive Big Ten schedule highlighted by a win over Indiana. The Green & White faced off against host-Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament and played the Hawkeyes close, but ultimately fell by a 4-3 margin to close out the season.

The Green & White posted seven wins during the COVID-adjusted 2020-21 campaign in which the Spartans played a 16-match Big Ten schedule. MSU earned wins over Rutgers, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana and two wins against Maryland during the regular season. The Spartans entered the Big Ten Tournament as a No. 9 overall seed and battled with host-Wisconsin. MSU snagged a dominant 4-1 win over the Badgers and went on to face eventual tournament champion Ohio State in the next round. Mary Lewis earned her second-straight All-Big Ten selection in the postseason, also garnering a Big Ten Sportsmanship award under Bruno's watch.

Despite the shortened season in 2019-20 due to COVID-19, Bruno saw her first All-Big Ten selection in junior Mary Lewis. Lewis had a stellar fall season before debuting at the No.1 position in the spring. This was the first All-Big Ten selection for the Spartans since Erin Faulkner received the honor in 2015. Lewis is just the 11th women's tennis player to earn All-Big Ten accolades in program history.

Also during the 2020 season, Bruno's Spartans received two ITA Midwest Regional Awards. Lewis was awarded the Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship award, which is awarded to individuals who have exhibited outstanding sportsmanship and leadership as well as scholastic, extracurricular and tennis achievements. The team was also named the ITA Midwest Regional Community Service Award recipient which recognizes a team that gives back to their campus and their community through tennis and non-tennis pathways.

In her first three seasons as head coach, the Spartans achieved three-consecutive seasons with a winning Big Ten record. This marked the first time in Spartan women's tennis program history in which the team has had three-straight winning Big Ten seasons.

During the 2019 season, Bruno led the Spartans to a 15-11 record and a 6-5 mark in Big Ten matches. On April 7, the team upset No.25-ranked Northwestern on the road. This was the Spartans second-ever win over conference opponent Northwestern and the first win versus the Wildcats since April 1977. The historic win marked the team’s second win over a Top 25 opponent in two seasons.

In her four seasons as head coach, Bruno has coached two top 10 winners in Emily Metcalf and Davina Nguyen. Nguyen became the winningest doubles player in program history with 68 wins, while Metcalf ranks fifth with 60 doubles wins. Nguyen is also the second most winningest singles and overall player with 74 singles wins and 142 overall wins. The doubles duo of Metcalf and Nguyen qualified for the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships in the fall of 2017, after receiving a No. 14 ranking in the ITA Preseason National Doubles Rankings.

Bruno led the team to a 16-9 overall record in 2018, including back-to-back seasons with a Big Ten winning record. Bruno's back-to-back seasons with a Big Ten winning record marks only the second time in program history that this achievement has been reached, with the last time occurring during the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Bruno’s Spartans defeated No.21-ranked Nebraska, 4-2, on March 16 in Lincoln, Neb.

In her first season, Bruno coached the Spartans to a 17-8 record with a 7-4 Big Ten record in 2017. Her 17-8 record is the highest winning percentage (.680) since 1991. The seven Big Ten wins are the most since 1991 when the team went 7-6 in conference play. Under Bruno's reign, junior Aslina Chua was honored as the national winner of the Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship for the 2016-17 season by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA).

In her three seasons at the helm of the Spartan women’s tennis program, Bruno’s Spartan teams have received 14 Academic All-Big Ten honors, four Big Ten Distinguished Scholar awards and eight ITA Scholar-Athlete awards. Bruno’s Spartans have been named an ITA All-Academic Team for all three seasons, posting a team GPA over 3.20 each season.

Bruno was hired to the Spartan staff after 11 seasons at Northern Arizona University. While at NAU, Bruno served as the director of tennis and oversaw both Lumberjack tennis programs for five years from 2008-13. She helped rebuild the NAU women's tennis program, capturing its first Big Sky regular-season title in 2016. Bruno was also named Big Sky Coach of the Year in 2006 and 2016.

At the helm of the Lumberjacks program, Bruno earned double-digit wins for 10 years, ending her time in Flagstaff with a 143-112 record. The Lumberjacks had 19 first-team All-Big Sky selections and a total of 49 All-Big Sky honorees during her tenure.

NAU succeeded off the court as well, accumulating 24 Big Sky All-Academic selections. In 2013, her team registered a program record 3.66 GPA. Bruno's squads received APR public recognition from the NCAA from 2013-2015.

Prior to NAU, Bruno spent two years at the University of Connecticut as the men and women's graduate assistant tennis coach from 2003-05. At UConn, she served as the only assistant to head coach Glenn Marshall. In 2002-03, Bruno was hired as the assistant women's tennis coach at Dartmouth College, where her responsibilities included individual lessons, recruiting, travel scheduling and organizing tournaments.

As a collegiate student-athlete, Bruno was a standout tennis player for the Lumberjacks from 1996-2000. She helped lead Northern Arizona to its first Big Sky Conference tournament title as a freshman, and then twice more as a sophomore and junior, marking the only three consecutive conference titles for the team in the history of the program. Bruno was a three-time All-Big Sky second team selection, and was named to the All-Big Sky first-team and All-Academic team as a senior. In 2009, the 1999 women's tennis team was inducted into the NAU Hall of Fame.