JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - University of North Florida men's tennis head coach Matt Lucas agreed to a multi-year contract extension through June 30, 2026 as announced by Director of Athletics Nick Morrow. 

"Coach Lucas has done a tremendous job of building a winning program that competes for championships every year," Director of Athletics Nick Morrow said. "Furthermore, the men's tennis program is one of the highest achieving academic teams in the athletics department. Coach Lucas has raised the standard of excellence for UNF men's tennis and his leadership will keep UNF at the top of the Atlantic Sun Conference for many years to come."

Lucas took over as head coach of the UNF men's tennis program prior to the 2018 season and has since then helped UNF to three conference championships including the 2018 ASUN Tournament Title. 

The Ospreys have gone 73-50 over the past six seasons, while Lucas has tallied 94 wins overall taking into account his two seasons at Pacific in California. North Florida men's tennis is most recently coming off a 16-7 2022-23 campaign that saw North Florida win the 2023 ASUN Regular Season Championship, advancing to the finals. 

"I cannot thank Director of Athletics Nick Morrow and the administration enough for their continued confidence and belief in what we are building at UNF," head coach Matt Lucas said. "Our culture is set and each player that comes into this program understands the responsibility and standards they must meet. These standards start with winning in the classroom and include being great ambassadors for the school in the community, tirelessly pursuing honing their tennis games and winning championships."

Since joining UNF as the head coach, North Florida has produced 14 all-league selections, three all-freshman honorees, four ASUN All-Academic picks, one ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year, an ASUN Doubles Pair of the Year honor and three College Sports Communicators Academic All-District picks. 

In 2018, Lucas was tabbed ASUN Coach of the Year by his peers as North Florida swept the league competition en route to an NCAA Championship appearance and regular season and league titles.

"This is going to be a fun season for our guys," Lucas said. "Already this fall we have won multiple titles in different tournaments and we are heading into ITA Regionals with a lot of confidence. Returning almost the entire team from our 2023 championship season makes it an even more exciting time to be an Osprey. We have big things to come and are building daily. SWOOP!"

Lucas' student-athletes have consistently come in with some of the best grade point averages in the department each year. In the spring of 2023, UNF men's tennis boasted a 3.614 team GPA, the highest among all male sports at UNF.

UNF men's tennis is poised for the seventh season in the Lucas era, bringing back seven letterwinners from last year's team that won the regular season league title. 

North Florida continues with the fall slate this week at the ITA Southeast Regionals in Atlanta, Ga.