Pretoria, South Africa native Dr. Jaco Keyser has made the University of South Alabama and Mobile his home away from home as he enters his 21st season as the head coach of Jaguar women’s tennis.
In his 20 seasons in charge, he has the most wins in school history (316) and has led the Jaguars to six NCAA Tournament appearances in four Sun Belt Conference titles. Keyser currently holds a 316-138 overall record and is the longest-tenured coach in program history.
The Jaguars posted a 22-5 records during the 2022 season, going 10-1 in conference matches. Keyser and South capped off the season by winning the regular season, their fourth Sun Belt Conference Tournament title and a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Jags won multiple post-season awards following the strong 2022 season, with Nikola Kohoutova being named the 2022 Sun Belt Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Year as well as All-Conference singles first team and doubles second team. The doubles pairing of Yu Fujioka and Lara van der Merwe were named first team, while Luminita Tutunaru and Nikola Kohoutova were named second team. Fuijoka was named singles first team.
Keyser has had a player or doubles pairing named to the All-Sun Belt team in 16 of his 20 seasons at South, and in 2003 Viktoria Stoklasova was tabbed an ITA All-American.
His teams finished the season ranked in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s top 65 seven straight times from 2003-09, including a final position of No. 16 in 2003, and he has guided the program to nine appearances in the ITA’s final top 75.
Keyser took over a team in 2002-03 that had won 10 straight league championships and promptly guided the team to its 11th SBC title with a 21-5 record. The Jags made their eighth consecutive NCAA appearance, first under Keyser, and won their first-round match with No. 73 Marshall 4-2 before bowing out to No. 10 William & Mary.
The following year the team advanced to the Sun Belt finals and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament, where the Jaguars fell to Rice.
The 2005 campaign saw USA post a 19-7 mark—with two winning streaks of six matches or longer—and another trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Jags knocked off in-state rival Alabama, ranked 39th in the nation, but succumbed to host and fourth-ranked Vanderbilt.
Keyser paced South Alabama to double-digit win totals in each of the next four seasons, including records of 19-5 in 2008 and 14-4 in 2009. His 2008 squad started the season with 11 straight wins en route to a third-place finish at the Sun Belt Championships, and the 2009 Jaguars also put together an 11-match streak that was snapped in the Sun Belt Championships by eventual champion Florida International.
Faced with rebuilding a shorthanded roster, the Jaguars dropped to a 2-13 record in 2010, his first losing season as a head coach.
He rebounded from a 3-13 ledger in 2011 to post one of the biggest turnarounds in the country, leading the Jaguars to a 14-6 mark in 2012. The win total almost tripled the five victories in the previous two seasons combined and included a nine-match win streak.
A 5-2 win over Austin Peay on March 8, 2011 gave Keyser his 128th career victory, surpassing Scott Novak for the top spot in school history.
Keyser then overhauled the roster to bring in five new players that collectively recorded a 59-15 singles record (79.7%) and 54-26 doubles mark (67.5%) in the spring. Alabama natives Mary Angela Martin and Emily Newton anchored the bottom of the lineup with a combined 34-1 singles record, including an 18-0 slate by Newton, the best single-season mark in school history.
The following season Keyser led the Jaguars to their most wins in five years with a 16-10 record and their first appearance in the Sun Belt semifinals since 2009. The team also had their first All-Sun Belt honorees since ‘09 with Newton earning a second-team nod in both singles and doubles with partner Michaela Meszarosova.
His 2014 squad reached the finals of the Sun Belt championships for the first time since 2007, and posted a 16-3 record, the second-best mark by percentage since 1980, and third-best in the program’s recorded history.
Laura Valkova was named First Team All-Sun Belt in singles after a perfect 16-0 spring season at the top three spots in the lineup. She also received second team honors in doubles, pairing up with fellow freshman Monica Mitta for a 14-0 mark at No. 2 doubles.
Emily Newton and Michaela Meszarosova also garnered second team all-league recognition.
The Jaguars returned to the top of the Sun Belt in 2015 with a 21-3 record. The team won its first 18 matches of the year — a new school record to start a season and tying the record for any win streak — and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005, falling 4-0 to No. 21 Clemson in Tuscaloosa.
Ten of those first 18 wins came via shutout, including five to close out the streak. The team also defeated a ranked opponent — No. 47 Tulane — for the first time since 2009. South Alabama went 9-0 against Sun Belt competition, getting the final three to clinch the program’s first SBC title since 2003. Keyser was voted the league’s coach of the year for the first time at the conclusion of the tournament.
Keyser guided the program to its initial final ITA ranking since 2008-09 at No. 74 and his doubles team of Emily Newton and Laura Valkova finished No. 88.
Newton and Valkova earned First Team All-Sun Belt honors in doubles, and second and first team in singles, respectively. Monica Mitta joined Valkova on the first team.
The 2016 season saw Keyser coach his first Sun Belt Freshman and Student-Athlete of the Year in Alexandria Stiteler, who also finished the season ranked nationally at No. 102, while also recording his 200th career win at South Alabama, a 6-1 victory over Louisiana Tech.
Stiteler became the first Jaguar to end the season in the top 125 and earn a berth in the NCAA Singles Championships since 2007 after posting 28 wins, the second-most by a USA player in the last nine years.
She was joined on the singles all-league first team by Laura Valkova, and Laura Matuskova and Michaela Meszarosova received second-team recognition. Stiteler and Cinta Maria Papke were named first team in doubles, while Meszarosova and Valkova earned their way on the second team.
The team ended the 2016 campaign at No. 53 in the ITA rankings, the program’s highest ITA ranking 2009.
In 2017, the Jaguars reached their fourth straight Sun Belt finals match and posted their third straight 21-win season for the first time in school history, as Stiteler repeated as the league’s player of the year and a first-team honoree. Matuskova was voted to the second team in singles, while the doubles teams of Stiteler and Mitta, and Valkova and Patricia Martins were named to the second team.
Keyser led the Jaguars to a fourth straight 20-win season and another Sun Belt final appearance in 2018, as USA started the season 16-1 and went 6-2 against league opposition.
Stiteler was named First Team all-Sun Belt for the third consecutive year, and was joined by Yu Fujioka, who posted the best dual season in school history, going 21-0 in the spring, including a USA-record 14-0 on the No. 3 court. Stiteler posted the third-best win percentage at No. 1, and moved up to the No. 2 spot in career top-flight wins at South Alabama.
The 2019 campaign marked Keyser’s second Sun Belt title in five seasons and the program’s fifth NCAA Tournament appearance. The team opened with a 10-match win streak, finished 22-5 overall and 8-2 in the league. The 22 wins tie the second most in school history.
Fujioka was named the Sun Belt Player of the Year — the third time in four seasons a Jaguar earned the award — and first-team all-conference.
Stiteler wrapped up her decorated career with a fourth all-Sun Belt honor, joining Fujioka on the first team, and became the program’s all-time leader in wins and win percentage at No. 1.
Off the court, Patricia Martins was voted to the CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-District 4 Women’s At-Large Team. She is the program’s first to achieve such an honor since Stoklasova in 2003, and third overall.
The 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Jags posted a 6-6 record prior to March.
Keyser led the team to a 15-6 mark, going 8-1 in conference play. Yu Fujioka was named Sun Belt Player of the Year for the second time during her career as a Jaguar. Fujioka was also named first team all-conference, Otoha Aoki being named second team all-conference. Aoki was also named Freshman of the Year. The doubles pairings of Aoki and Aina Domingo-Bernabeu were named first team doubles and Nikola Kohoutova and Fujioka were named second team doubles.
On four occasions, Keyser has mentored a singles player to an end-of-season national ranking. In addition to Stiteler, Stoklasova was ranked 33rd in her All-America season in 2003 while Adrianna Solarova finished No. 56 and No. 55 in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Stoklasova advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Individual Championships.
Keyser was named head women’s tennis coach on July 31, 2002, after spending three seasons with the men’s tennis program as an assistant coach.
A three-year letter winner on the South Alabama tennis team from 1994-97, Keyser was a member of three Sun Belt Championship teams and helped them advance to the NCAA Tournament each year. In 1995, the team reached the national quarterfinals at the NCAA Team Championships, the highest finish in school history.
His final records at South Alabama included a singles mark of 46-14 and a doubles record of 56-10. He was named All-Sun Belt Conference in doubles in 1995 with Myles Wakefield and in 1996 with Johannes Saayman.
Keyser was ranked in the top five in singles and doubles in the South African juniors for age 12-18 and was a member of the South African High School tennis team in 1992 and 1993.
