University of California - Riverside Women's Tennis

For the 2025-26 season, Robert Pearson enters his second year as an assistant coach at UC Riverside.  Pearson served as the head men’s and women’s coach at Vanguard University for three years from 1992-95, twice being named Golden State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year. After Vanguard, he served as an assistant coach at Boise State in 1996-97 and helped guide the Broncos to a No. 7 national ranking.  Pearson has also given private and group tennis lessons for 26 years in addition to 12 years of coaching at the high school level.

The 2025-26 season marks Bobby Kielty's second season as an assistant coach for UC Riverside.  Kielty is the Head Tennis Pro at Canyon Lake Country Club, a position he has held for the past four year. He coached high school tennis for five years at Temescal Canyon High School. During his time with the program Temescal Canyon went from a Division 5 program to a Division 1 tennis program. Kielty coached and trained many players that are playing college tennis. He currently is rated a 5.0 player. Prior to coaching Tennis, Bobby played 14 years of professional baseball and reaching the pinnacle of winning a World Series Championship with the Boston Red Sox in 2007. Bobby is married to his wife Meredith and has three kids named Haley, Kaylin, and Aiden. 

Mattias Johansson was named head coach of the UC Riverside men's tennis program in November of 2015 and enters his 11th season in 2025-26. Johansson was named Director of Tennis on November 30, 2022 following the retirement of long-time UCR Women's Tennis head coach, Mark Henry. Under Johansson on the men's side, UC Riverside has collected 12 All-Big West nods (10 honorable mention), nine Players of the Week and a first-place showing in the 2020 Big West standings prior to the COVID-19 shutdown.  In his first season at UCR, Johansson led the Highlander to a DI-record 13 regular season victories. Under his direction, freshmen Kyle McCann and Anderson Ju finished second and ninth on the singles play DI season total wins list. Hans Baumstark capped his career with 14 doubles victories in his senior season - second all-time - while fellow seniors Julian Ruffin and Sean Robles were named All-Conference Honorable Mention in 2016. Johansson coached the 2019 Highlanders to a 20-16 overall record, the most wins by a Big West team that season and UCR's first winning record as a member of the Big West. Included in that 2019 season was a program-record 28 singles wins from All-Big West Honorable Mention Gilbert Chung.  He most recently was the head men's tennis coach at Vanguard University from 1996 to 2015 and was inducted into the Vanguard Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011 as both a student-athlete and coach. Johansson boasts a career record of 534-278 after 19 years at Vanguard, with an overall men's slate of 310-145. He also led the highly successful women's program from 1999-2014, where he and his teams went 224-124. The 2013 men's tennis team won the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season title, going undefeated in league play for the first time in program history. The Lions also won the GSAC Tennis Tournament in 2013, and were ranked third in the NAIA going into the national tournament. The team finished third in the nation (tying the program's highest-ever finish) and lost just one match in 2013 (NAIA semifinals vs. Auburn-Montgomery 5-2).  With an overall record of 24-1 (best ever for a VU men's tennis team), Johansson earned the 2013 GSAC Coach of the Year Award as well as the prestigious Wilson/ITA Coach of the Year Award. Johansson and the Lions continued their success in 2014, with neither the men nor the women suffering a single conference loss. Both squads went on to claim a respective GSAC regular season championship as well as the coveted GSAC tournament championship. Johansson was voted as the men's GSAC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season, while also picking up GSAC Coach of the Year honors on the women's side.  During the Johansson coaching era the Lion men won five GSAC Championships (1996, 1999, 2000, 2013, 2014), two GSAC Tournament titles (2013, 2014) and two Region II Championships (1995, 1998). The team has been ranked in the NAIA top-25 every year. The VU men's team advanced to the NAIA National Tournament in all but one season, while placing third in the NAIA tournament four times during Johannson's reign (2000, 2004, 2013, 2014).  In 1999, 2013 and 2014, he was honored as the GSAC Men's Tennis Coach of the Year. He was also named the ITA's Regional and National Coach of the Year for his involvement with the VU men in back-to-back seasons (2012-2013, 2013-2014).  In 2005 he was named the Region II Co-Coach of the Year for the first time in his career.   Four of Johansson's athletes were named Athlete of the Year at Vanguard University, and three of his players were ranked No. 1 in the NAIA (Olga Hlushchanka, Florian Lemke, Gabriela Bergmanova). He has also managed a total of 85 All-American and NAIA Scholar-Athletes, 39+ All-GSAC players, 15+ All-Region players and 15+ players who received awards for their stellar play at various NAIA Championships. Johansson took over the reins of the program after two very successful years as a player with the school. He accumulated a 41-18 record in his two-year career as the number one singles player for the Lions.  Johansson has been actively teaching tennis since he was 14 and has competed in the sport for well over 20 years, boasting wins over many highly ranked ATP tour players.  Mattias earned a BA in exercise sports science and a BA in business administration at Vanguard. He obtained his Master's degree in business at National University in 2001. In addition to coaching the Highlanders, he also owns his own business and teaches tennis at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center. Johansson and his wife Karie live in Huntington Beach, and have two children, Brooke, and son Dylan.