Former Kansas and Washburn University standout Sonia Smagina joins the Sacramento State women’s tennis program for her first season as an assistant coach in 2025-26, Head Coach Sophie Breault announced on Sept. 15.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Sonia to our coaching staff,” Breault said. “She’s a highly motivated, driven, and competitive coach who brings valuable experience from her playing career at Kansas and her coaching tenure at Washburn University. She knows what it takes to compete at the highest level and will help elevate our program and develop our student-athletes.”
Smagina joins the Hornets after serving as an Assistant Tennis Professional at the Eugene Swim & Tennis Club in Oregon for the last nine months following a decorated collegiate career with the Jayhawks and Ichabods.
The native of Penza, Russia, rose through the junior ranks to earn a spot on the roster at Kansas, where she was a four-year letter winner from 2018-22. She was named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team following her debut season when she finished a combined 17-4 in singles and 16-5 in doubles play, also picking up second-team all-conference honors in seconds and first-team doubles laurels.
The Jayhawks won the Big 12 Conference Tournament that year, eventually advancing to the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 at Stanford before falling.
Prior to the pandemic, she posted a 7-4 singles record at the No. 1 spot in the Jayhawks’ lineup as a sophomore, including posting three wins over nationally ranked opponents before the season came to a premature end.
The next season, she split time at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions, finishing 7-11 overall while winning five matches in doubles play, then followed that up the next year by winning 16 matches overall — 10 of those during the spring season at the No. 3 spot in the lineup — while posting 12 more in doubles competition and helping Kansas to another NCAA Tournament berth.
After graduating with her degree in liberal arts and sciences, Smagina completed her final season of eligibility at Division II Washburn University in nearby Topeka, Kan., in 2022-23, posting a 30-3 singles record and a 26-5 mark in doubles play, eventually earning a No. 1 national ranking in singles and ranked as high as No. 5 in the country in doubles.
The 30 singles victories were the second-most in the history of the program at the time, while the 26 doubles triumphs were the sixth-most in a season.
An All-American in both singles and doubles play, Smagina was also named the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Player of the Year and was a first-team all-conference selection in both singles and doubles. She was also the Division II ITA Cup national runner-up during the fall, won the ITA Central Region Division II singles championship, and was a finalist for the region’s doubles crown.
Following her playing career, she served one season as a graduate assistant coach at Washburn for both the men’s and women’s programs while concurrently pursuing her MBA. She helped the Ichabod women finish 20-6 overall for the program’s first 20-win season since 2018-19, with seven victories over ranked opposition and a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament. The team reached as high as No. 3 in the national rankings — the highest in program history.
On the men’s side, Smagina helped the Washburn squad to a 20-5 overall record and an undefeated MIAA mark, making an appearance at the NCAA Division II national championships for the second straight season and advancing to the round of 16. During the fall, the Ichabods claimed a regional singles title, the program’s first ITA Cup national title in doubles, and a berth in the Division II fall national championships.
The daughter of Victor and Larisa, Smagina compiled 12 singles and 23 career doubles wins on the International Tennis Federation pro circuit, ranked as high as No. 1,012 in the world in singles and No. 576 in doubles.
