Coastal Carolina University Athletics

• Conference Regular Season Titles: 3 (2013, 2015, and 2016)
• Conference Tournament Titles: 2 (2013 and 2016)
• NCAA Tournament Appearances: 2 (2013 and 2016)
• NCAA Singles Appearances: 1 (2014)
• ITA Team Rankings: 1 (2014 / No. 68)
• Conference Coach of the Year: 3 (2013, 2016, and 2019)
• 2010-19 Big South Men's Tennis All-Decade Team

Coastal Carolina University men's tennis head coach Chris Powers completed his 24th overall season at CCU and his 21st as the head coach of the Chanticleers in 2024-25. Powers is the winningest coach in program history and has been named the conference Coach of the Year three times — twice in the Big South Conference (2013 and 2016) and once in the Sun Belt Conference (2019). He was also named the coach for the 2010-19 Big South Men's Tennis All-Decade team in July 2020.

Over his time at Coastal Carolina, Powers has coached five nationally ranked singles players and seven nationally ranked doubles teams. He has also led the Chants to the NCAA tournament three times (2013, 2014, and 2016) and helped coach the Coastal Carolina women’s program to its historic 2001 NCAA tournament berth. Powers also served as an assistant coach for two additional NCAA tournament teams at Virginia Tech in 1999 and 2000.   

Powers served five years as a member of the ITA Carolina Regional Coaches Committee and was voted the 2015 Coastal Carolina Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Faculty Member of the Year. He also served as the Sun Belt Conference's men's tennis coaches' representative from 2019-21.

At CCU, Powers has mentored 20 all-conference performers in singles play, including 2019 Sun Belt Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Year in Luiz Fara, and had 20 Chanticleers pick up all-conference honors in doubles play.

Under the guidance of Powers and the Coastal Carolina academic staff, the men's tennis team has excelled in the classroom. 
 
As a team, Coastal Carolina has been named an Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team 19 out of 20 seasons, an honor bestowed upon any team that posts a cumulative grade-point average of 3.2 or higher during the academic year. Individually, Powers has had numerous student-athletes combine to earn a total of 89 ITA Scholar-Athletes honors, which requires a 3.5 GPA or higher. 

The Chants have led all of Coastal Carolina men's programs 13 out of the last 14 semesters in cumulative team grade-point average.

Powers' latest Coach of the Year honor came in 2019 as he led Coastal Carolina to the biggest turnaround in the Sun Belt, improving from 6-15 in 2018 to 16-8 in 2019. The successful season included a tough slate of opponents, including No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 46 UNCW, and No. 50 Duke. The Chants placed third in the Sun Belt in the regular season with a 5-2 conference record, marking their highest finish since joining the conference. Coastal also recorded its first-ever Sun Belt Championship Tournament win, defeating Georgia Southern 4-3 to advance to the tournament's semifinal round. Powers additionally coached senior Luiz Faria to Sun Belt Player of the Year Award. 
 
Powers led Coastal to its second team appearance in the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship in 2016 after posting a program-best record of 21-4. It was also the first season in team history with over 20 wins. The NCAA postseason appearance was earned by way of the program's sixth Big South tournament championship, captured by a 4-3 come-from-behind win over Presbyterian to close out Coastal's final year in the conference. The Chants also captured the league's regular-season title — the fifth in program history — after finishing with a perfect 8-0 record. It was the team's second regular-season championship in a row and third in four years. Powers was voted the Big South Coach of the Year for the second time in his career while Coastal had four student-athletes voted All-Big South in Jabor Al-Mutawa (first team), Velickovic (first team), Pedro Leme (first team), and Sebastian Schneider (second team). Coastal's 2016 season came to a close with a loss to No. 6-nationally ranked Wake Forest in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. 
 
Powers captained the Chanticleers to a historic 2013-14 season that saw the Coastal Carolina men's tennis program earn its first national ranking by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. The Chants jumped into the ITA's Top 75 at No. 68 on March 4, 2014, having started the season 6-4 despite playing nationally ranked teams in Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and Duke. The Chants ended the season with a 13-11 overall record and reached the semifinals of the Big South Conference Championship tournament for the third consecutive year. 
 
The 2013-14 season also saw another program-first for Powers and the Chants as junior Philippe Tsangarides became the first men's singles player in school history to achieve both a national ranking in the ITA's Top 125 and qualify for the 2014 NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championship. Tsangarides broke into the national rankings at No. 109 on Feb. 11, 2014, before peaking at No. 67. 
 
Under Powers' direction, the 2012-13 Chanticleers had the best season in the history of the Coastal Carolina men's tennis program to date. The Chants finished the season with an impressive 15-6 overall record, including an unblemished 8-0 mark in Big South Conference play. After being crowned the conference's regular-season champions, the Chants went on to claim the Big South tournament title for the first time since 1994. The championship win earned the Chants the Big South's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and the first NCAA appearance in the program's history. The Chanticleers ended their impressive season with a hard-fought match against No. 9 Duke in the first round of the Durham Regional. 
 
Before he was named head coach in 2004, Powers served as the assistant coach for both the men's and women's programs at Coastal Carolina for four years. 
 
Powers arrived at Coastal Carolina after spending two seasons at Virginia Tech as the assistant women's tennis coach. He helped the Hokies to back-to-back Atlantic-10 Championships. Virginia Tech earned a No. 28 national rankings during the 1999 season, the highest-ever ranking in the program. Powers guided Tech's top doubles team to a final four appearance in the 1998 National Clay Court Championships. Powers also coached three nationally-ranked singles players during his tenure at Virginia Tech. 
 
Powers also served as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Alabama assisting in all aspects of the Crimson Tide, while working toward a master's degree in history. 
 
A native of Moneta, Va., Powers was a three-year captain at Ferrum College where he completed his four-year career with 46 career victories. As a senior in 1997, he received the President's Cup, the top athletic award at Ferrum, and was voted by his class to give the senior commencement address. Powers was also an Academic All-American, registering a 3.4 GPA. 
 
Powers is married to the former Jenny Anderson. The couple have two boys named Andy and Logan. He has also taught American History at Coastal Carolina since 2003.    
 

COACHING TREE
Former Players under Head Coach Chris Powers
Matt Gordon - Assistant Coach at the University of Kentucky
Pete Billingham - Associate Head Coach at the University of Southern California
Bastien Huon - Assistant Coach at UNC Charlotte
Alex Funkhouser - Assistant Coach at the University of San Diego
Diego Giraldo - Assistant Coach at the University of Missouri at Kansas City
 
Former Assistants under Head Coach Chris Powers
Liam Fraboulet - Head Coach at Hillsdale College
Lonnie White - Head Coach at Johnson C. Smith University
 

CAREER HEAD COACHING RECORD
21 Seasons at Coastal Carolina
Overall: 249-195 (.561)
Overall Conference: 70-58 (.547)
Big South (2005-16): 53-30 (.638)
Sun Belt (2017-present): 17-28 (.378)

*season ended on March 16 due to coronavirus pandemic