Taylor Russo

Biography

New women’s tennis coach Chris Hooshyar reached into his recent past to make his first hire at Mississippi State, tabbing Taylor Russo as his assistant coach. Russo played for Hooshyar during his tenure at Auburn before she broke into the coaching ranks as an assistant coach at Wisconsin last year. During her tenure, Russo helped lead the Badgers to one of the most successful seasons in program history. Russo was actually recruited by Hooshyar to The Plains out of Deerfield Beach, Florida, where she was the top-ranked player in the state and the No. 2 prospect in the Southeast. Russo played for Hooshyar for three years before he moved over to coach the Tigers’ men’s team. During her lone season with Wisconsin, Russo helped guide the Badgers to their first victory in the NCAA Championships in 21 years. Wisconsin went 20-7 overall, including an 8-3 mark in Big Ten play and were ranked as highly as 11th in the nation during the 2023 season. With Russo’s assistance, Ava Markham and Maria Sholokhova were members of the All-Big Ten team with Markham becoming the first Badger to qualify for the NCAA Individual Singles Championship since 2016. As a student-athlete, Russo lettered for five seasons at Auburn from 2017-21 and was twice named a captain for the Tigers. She was selected to the SEC All-Freshman team in 2017 and was the ITA Southern Region Senior Player of the Year in 2020. She was a five-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member, was tabbed to the SEC Community Service Team three