Southeast Missouri State University Women's Tennis

Steve Brooks enters his second year as Southeast Missouri's head women's tennis coach in the 2025-26 season. In his first season, the Redhawks took the OVC regular season title with a perfect 5-0 record in OVC matches. In the championship season he also coached Lera Valeeva to first team All-OVC honors. Coach Brooks was also awarded the OVC Coach of the Year award in his debut season.  Brooks was named the 10th head coach in program history on Aug. 26, 2024. He comes to SEMO with more than 20 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 15 at the NCAA Division I level.   Prior to SEMO, Brooks worked as an assistant coach at fellow OVC member Tennessee State from 2022-24. There, he oversaw budgeting, facilities and travel. Brooks helped the Tigers earn a spot in the OVC Championship semifinals each of the last two years.   Before TSU, Brooks was the Director of Tennis/Pickleball Bristol Racquet & Fitness in Bristol, Tennessee for six years (2015-21).   He has previous head coaching experience working one year as interim head women’s tennis coach at Emory & Henry College (2019), nine seasons as head women’s tennis coach at East Tennessee State (2001-10) and two years as head men’s tennis coach at The Citadel (1999-01).   While at ETSU, Brooks guided the Bucs to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. In each of his final five years during his time in Johnson City, Brooks' teams played in the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament finals.  His teams also boasted high academic honors with 60 academic all-conference selections, 27 ITA Scholar-Athlete picks, six ITA All-Academic teams, a Fulbright Scholar and a NCAA Sportsmanship Award.   In addition to ETSU, Brooks made other coaching stops at the University of Tennessee, University of Arkansas and his alma mater, Carson-Newman College.   As a collegiate player, Brooks earned undefeated conference records in both singles and doubles all four years at Carson-Newman. The winningest player in program history with 200 victories, Brooks ranked as high as eighth nationally in NAIA in 1984.   A native of Jefferson City, Tennessee, Brooks earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business from Carson-Newman in 1985. He completed his master's degree in administration/recreation at Tennessee in 1989.    

The 2025-26 season marks the second year for Daniela Hlacikova as the graduate assistant for Southeast Missouri women’s tennis. In her first year as the GA, SEMO went undefeated in OVC matches. She also helped to direct Lera Valeeva to earn First Team All-OVC honors.  Hlacikova competed in her senior season at Southeast in 2024 going 12-5 in dual singles play with nine of her victories coming at the No. 1 position.  Hlacikova teamed up with Juliette Talieu in doubles play to achieve a record of 13-1. Hlacikova became the first player in program history to be voted OVC Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons winning the award in 2024 and 2023.  Additionally, Hlacikova secured First-Team All-OVC honors for the fourth time in her career, was named to the OVC Doubles All-Conference Team with Talieu and won four of the team's five OVC Doubles Team of the Week awards during the 24 season. During the 2023 season, posted a singles record of 15-3, 9-2 at number one and 3-1 at the second slot. Played the whole year with Teona Velkoska again and notched a record of 12-4 at slot two. Helped the Redhawks to another OVC tournament title and an NCAA tournament berth. Was named Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year becoming only the second SEMO player ever to achieve this honor and was named to the All-OVC First Team again. She was also OVC singles player of the week twice, a league best.  During her sophomore campaign, led the Redhawks in 2022 with an OVC record of 6-1 at the second singles slot. Finished 2022 with a dual singles mark of 12-7. Teamed up with Velkoska for a 13-4 dual doubles mark which led the Redhawks that season. Helped SEMO win the OVC title and go on to face #15 Stanford in the NCAA Tournament. Selected to the 2022 All-OVC First Team for her second career All-OVC First Team. With Teona Velkoska was named to the 2022 All-OVC Doubles Team and named OVC Tennis Player of the Week a conference-best two times and OVC Doubles Team of the Week with Velkoska a league-best two times. In 2021, Hlacikova had a singles mark of 14-3, 1-0 at No. 1, 8-2 at the No. 2 slot, and 5-1 at the third position. She saw seven victories with her partner Teona Velkoska during the season. At the end of the season Hlacikova was named the 2021 OVC Women's Co-Freshman of the Year and earned 2021 All-OVC First Team honors. She was the fourth tennis player in SEMO history to win OVC Freshman of the Year.  The Banská Bystrica, Slovakia native spent the last four years here at Southeast Missouri State graduating with a bachelor's degree in Global studies and Languages with a minor in Sports management.  She plans to get her masters degree in Public Administration She spent her career here at SEMO mainly playing at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.