Jeff Trivette begins his 13th season as the women’s tennis coach at UNCG in 2011-12. Trivette was permanently named head tennis coach on July 1, 2000, after serving one year as interim head coach. He had been an assistant coach at UNCG for 10 years prior to that.

Trivette coached both the men’s and women’s programs at UNCG for five seasons before relinquishing the men’s title before the 2004-05 season to current coach Thomas Mozur.

In Trivette’s tenure, UNCG has reached the semifinals of the Southern Conference Championship four times. He has had four first-team All-SoCon singles selections, including two-time honoree and 2008 SoCon Player of the Year Alejandra Guerra, and seven first-team doubles teams picked. Six have earned second-team all-league singles laurels under Trivette, while one doubles team has earned second-team honors. UNCG has had at least one first-team singles and doubles selection in four of the last five seasons.

Trivette has also put three student-athletes on the SoCon All-Freshman Team since its inception in 2009, the third-most in the league in that span.

Last season, Trivette guided the Spartans to 15-7 overall mark and a second-place Southern Conference finish at 9-1 in the league. Four players earned first-team All-SoCon honors, with Niltooli Wilkins taking the distinction in singles and Wilkins, Alex Whitehead, Lucy Dougherty and Stephanie Macfarlane doing so in doubles play. UNCG also made a brief appearance in the national rankings, topping out at No. 70. The Spartans reached the semifinals of the SoCon Championship for just the fifth time in school history.

Trivette had UNCG ranked 66^th in 2009-10, but the Spartans had to deal with an injury at the top of the lineup and finished the season with a 10-11 ledger that included a 4-6 league mark. Despite the sub-.500 record, UNCG had three student-athletes earn All-SoCon honors, while Whitehead and Annette Rios were SoCon All-Freshman selections, as well.

Guerra went 18-2 in the 2008 spring season and compiled a 17-match winning streak en route to being named the league’s player of the year. Guerra was named all-conference in singles, while Guerra and Arielle VonStrolley combined to earn a doubles all-league slot, as well.

As the men's coach for five seasons, he compiled a 55-57 mark overall. In his second season with the men’s team, Trivette was named the Southern Conference Coach of the Year in 2001-02. He guided his squad to a 9-1 mark in conference play (15-5 overall) and a tie with Furman for the league title. In addition, the women’s team finished third in the SoCon that same season with a 7-2 mark (10-9 overall). Both teams advanced to the conference tournament semifinals.

As interim head coach in 1999-2000, Trivette led the men’s team to a national ranking, a 16-7 overall mark and a third-place finish in the Southern Conference (8-2).

As assistant coach in 1998-99, Trivette helped guide the women’s team to the SoCon regular-season title and a national ranking. Also, the men’s team finished runner-up in the conference.

With Trivette on staff, the men’s team was the Big South Conference runner-up in 1992, 1993 and 1994 before winning its first conference championship in 1995. The women’s team was the Big South regular-season champion in 1996 and 1997 and Big South tournament champion in 1997 after a runner-up finish the year prior.

In addition to working with the Spartan teams for more than two decades, Trivette has assisted with the university’s summer tennis camp and has been tournament coordinator for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association/Rolex Summer Circuit event that is played annually at UNCG.

Trivette, an assistant men’s tennis coach at Greensboro College in 1989, is a 28-year veteran of coaching. Prior to entering coaching, Trivette played at Charlotte and also competed professionally.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise and sport science from UNCG in 1992 and a master’s degree in sport psychology from UNCG in 1994.

Erica Zabkar enters her fourth season as an assistant coach at UNCG in 2011-12.

In Zabkar’s three seasons on the staff, the Spartans have posted a pair of top-three finishes in the Southern Conference standings.

In 2008-09, her first season, UNCG finished 15-6 overall and 8-2 in the SoCon, good for third place in the league standings. The Spartans reached the SoCon Championship semifinals for just the fourth time in school history and placed four student-athletes on the all-conference first team, with Alejandra Guerra taking the honor in singles and doubles. Guerra set a school record for singles wins that season, going 29-8.  

Despite a down year in 2009-10, UNCG still managed to put two players on the All-SoCon Second Team for singles, while its No. 3 doubles tandem also earned second-team accolades.

Zabkar helped UNCG to a huge turnaround in 2010-11, as the Spartans rebounded with a 15-7 mark that included a 9-1 SoCon record and a second-place league finish. UNCG reached the SoCon Championship semifinals for the second time in three seasons and had four players earn all-league honors, including Niltooli Wilkins, who was first team in singles and doubles and fell a win shy of Guerra’s school-record singles mark.

As a student-athlete for the Spartans, Zabkar was a four-year starter from 2004-08, earning first-team All-SoCon honors in doubles as a junior. She compiled an 84-49 record in singles play during her career, including a 20-11 mark as a senior in 2007-08.

Zabkar, who played everywhere from Nos. 2-5 in singles for UNCG, set what was then a single-season record with 23 wins as a freshman in 2004-05, then matched that standard as a junior. That mark, which was later eclipsed by Guerra, still stands as the school's mark for wins by a freshman.

The Atlanta, Ga., native graduated from UNCG with a degree in exercise and sports science in 2008 and finished her master’s in kinesiology in May 2011.

Megan Nicholas enters her second season as a volunteer assistant coach at UNCG in 2011-12.

Nicholas helped UNCG to a second-place Southern Conference finish in 2010-11, as the Spartans went 15-7 overall and 9-1 in league play. UNCG reached the SoCon Championship for the second time in three seasons and had four players earn all-conference honors.

The Covington, La., native came to UNCG after spending three seasons as a full-time assistant at Marshall. There, she helped the Thundering Herd to Conference USA tournament runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2008.

A 2006 graduate of William & Mary, Nicholas was the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year and CAA tournament MVP for the Tribe in 2004. A four-time All-CAA selection in singles and doubles, Nicholas was an All-American in doubles in 2004 after reaching the NCAA quarterfinals. She also played in the NCAA Singles Championship that season. She was one of 25 former CAA women’s tennis players named to the league’s Silver Anniversary team in 2009.

The former Megan Muth, Nicholas is married to UNCG volleyball coach Patrick Nicholas.