As 2025–26 NESCAC play begins, many new faces join the Red and Black as players and as coaches. Three new head coaches take the helms of their respective programs, looking to make impacts early towards success for the Cards. The Argus talked to these three coaches about their outlook for the season and what Wes fans should look forward to in their first years as Wesleyan head coaches.
Men’s Tennis: Roland Thornqvist
Coach Roland Thornqvist comes to Wesleyan after spending time as a head coach at the University of Kansas, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and, most notably, the University of Florida. He coached Florida’s women’s team to four national championships in 2003, 2011, 2012, and 2017. Thornqvist brings a wealth of experience and championship success to Wesleyan, but this will be his first time as a men’s head coach.
The appeal of D-III coaching and Wesleyan’s “two teams, one program” approach is what leapt off the page and led Thornqvist to put his name in the hat for the position.
“[Wesleyan] checked a lot of boxes,” Thornqvist said. “I wasn’t that enamored with the D-I model lately, with the paying of players and what that did to buildings of teams and just the teaching part. Coming here to D-III in general—but in particular to Wesleyan, where it’s a world class institution—I was going to work with smart people that have the right attitude towards what we do: academics first, but tennis still matters to them.”
Given Thornqvist’s unfamiliarity with D-III play, these early fall weeks and matches give him the opportunity to focus exclusively on what the team can do better before winter.
“I told [the team] before we played Babson [College] last week that I am completely naive as to the level of play in the NESCAC,” Thornqvist said. “So the only thing I was concerned with the whole time leading up to the match was Wes. Us. How are we during practice? Did we have the right habits? The right attitude? Our body language? And then we’ll figure out, as we compete, where we stand currently with some of the other teams.”
On Friday, Sept. 19, the team played their first match against Babson, and while they ultimately lost 3–4, they showed serious resilience against the no. 11 ranked team in all of D-III. Strong wins from Tai McDonald ’26, Max Litton ’26, and Tommy Jani ’29 gave the team confidence as they battled the Beavers.
As the fall season continues and the spring season approaches, Thornqvist is excited and grateful for the opportunity.
“The team has been amazing and welcomed me,” Thornqvist said. “Steph [Yanosov, Assistant Coach] has been invaluable in helping me for the first few weeks. Steph, Lucas [Pickering, Assistant Coach], and I are a great group leading these two teams. Hopefully we can give you guys something to write about.”
Women’s Tennis: Steph Yanosov
Coach Steph Yanosov is entering her fifth year at Wesleyan, after spending the last four seasons as an Assistant Coach and Associate Head Coach for both the men’s and women’s tennis teams. She earned the honor of ITA Northeast Region Assistant Coach of the Year in both 2022–23 and 2023–24, and she was named 2024 ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year. She helped lead the Cardinals to three NESCAC titles and a National Championship appearance in 2023.
Yanosov is less concerned about the honors she’s garnered and more about the impact she has on her individual players.
“What’s more important to me is that I hope my teams feel I’ve helped them,” Yanosov said. “[The awards] are great, but as long as my team is happy and in a place where they feel like they’ve got support from us as coaches, I want them to feel like that.”
One of the greatest strengths of the tennis program is their ability to be loud and energetic as a team on the court, and Yanosov emphasized that mentality during practices to ensure that their team chemistry is impactful during competition.
“We talk about it every day,” Yanosov said. “It’s the first thing when we get on the court, when we’re off the court. Without that piece, none of this matters. As a tennis player, it’s very easy to come in here with only your own individual mindset, just because most players are not coming from team backgrounds. So right when we get here, the first day of practice, that’s what we’re talking about.”
Yanosov and the team have big goals for this season, but they also know to take it one day at a time and improve during every practice.
“I want the girls to really have fun and work hard at practice, and then the other goals will come,” Yanosov said. “I want us to win the Little Three. I want us to win the NESCAC. I want us to win the NCAA Championship…. But the only way to do that is to work hard when we show up to practice and also laugh, too. Those two things matter, so that’s the goal every day. And for the bigger girls, I want the girls to dominate.”
Baseball: Matt Reynolds
On Aug. 21, 2025, the Wesleyan Baseball Program announced a new head coach for the program: Matt Reynolds. Reynolds comes to the Cardinals with over 20 years of coaching experience at the University of Massachusetts, the United States Naval Academy, and Washington College. When asked why he chose Wesleyan, Coach Reynolds cited the “opportunity to create an impact early and [the] tremendous amount of support behind [the] program.”
Reynolds looks to build and recruit a culture based on his “competition, classroom, community” philosophy and believes that if his players hyperfocus on these three pillars for 12 months of the year, they will come out proud of the product. He aims to be “consistent” with the players and to put an emphasis on both “standards instead of rules and [being] known as the hardest working team in the league.”
In his players and recruits, Reynolds hopes to find those who are of the “absolute highest character.”
“[I want them] to be able to do their academic life and their athletic life at a very high level and [be] willing to put the work in behind the scenes to become the best possible athletes that they can over their four years,” Reynolds said.
As he looks to rebuild a culture, he said he will focus beyond the wins and losses.
“Have [the players] done each day the proper way? Have we laid the foundation? Have we laid the bricks properly?” he asked.
Looking to this year, Reynolds expressed gratitude for the opportunity to build the Red and Black back to dominance.
Max Forstein can be reached at mforstein@wesleyan.edu.
Leila Feldman can be reached at lfeldman01@wesleyan.edu.
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