Shelley Jaudon is stepping down as head women’s tennis coach after five years at JMU

HARRISONBURG, Va. James Madison University Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne announced Thursday that the women’s tennis head coach Shelley Jaudon is leaving college after five years to accept the head coaching position at the University of Kentucky.

JMU will immediately begin a national search for the program’s next head coach.

“Shelley Jaudon has done an incredible job for our women’s tennis program and left a lasting impression,” Bourne said. “She guided JMU to the first two conference titles in program history, and it could have been more if not for factors beyond her control. His successor inherits a program poised for continued success at the top of the Sun Belt. We wish him and his family the best in their new opportunity in Kentucky.”

“Leading the JMU women’s tennis program for the past five years has been an honor and an experience for which I will always be grateful,” Jaudon said. “The girls in this program believed in my vision from the beginning, and we’ve been able to build this program to a high level by investing in each other, and I’m so proud of that. JMU will forever be a special place for me and my family, and I look forward to being JMU’s biggest women’s tennis fan. I want to thank Jeff Bourne and the late Tom Kusteria for the opportunity to become part of the JMU family.”

Jaudon, who was hired on June 13, 2018, took the JMU women’s tennis program to heights it had never reached during her five seasons. She led the Dukes to a 62-36 overall record (.633) and the program’s first two conference championships and the team’s NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships.

His tenure at Harrisonburg most recently included 15-win seasons in the program’s first year in the Sun Belt Conference, along with a pair of 14-win campaigns. He guided JMU to Colonial Athletic Association championships in both 2019 and 2021, when he was also named CAA Coach of the Year.

JMU achieved its highest national ranking ever in 2021, finishing the year at No. 59 and earning a spot the following year in the 2022 ITA Kickoff. With the Dukes, they produced 13 all-conference singles honors, and five doubles teams were honored on the all-conference teams.

Dukes also excelled off the court, as his teams have been named to the ITA All-Academic Team in each of his first four seasons, with a Fifth expected this summer. A total of 21 student-athletes have earned ITA Scholar-Athlete status, with four more in line to receive the honor in the coming months.

Outgoing senior Kylie Moulin has also recently received significant academic and leadership awards. In 2022, she received both the ITA Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship in the Atlantic Region and the Casey Carter JMU Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He also won the 2021-22 CAA Institutional Scholar-Athlete of the Year and the 2020-21 CAA Leadership & Sport Excellence Awards.