Anastasia Pennington

Biography

Anastasia Pennington joined the Gopher tennis program as an assistant coach in 2023. Pennington reunites with Coach Arterberry for the first time since 2016 when she was a student athlete of Arterberry's at Jackson State University. Pennington arrives at the 'U' as an experienced developer of young tennis players of all levels, most recently acting as a tennis recruitment manager for ASM Scholarships and an associate tennis professional for Players Club & Spa at Lely Resort in Naples, Florida. Her roles involved guiding student athletes into NCAA, NAIA, and NJCAA universities, as well as running camps for young athletes looking to master their skills on the court. Pennington also comes to Minnesota with head coaching experience. She was the women's head tennis coach for the Sanchez-Casal Tennis Academy from 2016 to 2018, where she worked with top-300 ITF juniors and top-800 WTA players, including former Gopher Tennis captain River Hart. As a player at Jackson State (from 2013 to 2016), Pennington played both No.1 singles and No.1 doubles. She helped the Tigers to a 2016 SWAC Women's Tennis Championship appearance while being named a member of the SWAC All-Tournament Team. She had begun her collegiate career at William Carey University, where as a freshman she played on a Crusaders squad that made an NAIA National Championship appearance. Prior to that, she was the top-ranked junior tennis player in Ukraine. Pennington earned her bachelor's degree in health, physical education