Ki Kroll
Ki Kroll
KiCoaching3L8A3449

Entering his seventh season since taking over the program during the 2018-19 season, Kroll has the Roadrunners coming off one of the most impressive seasons in school history. In 2024, Kroll guided the Roadrunners to a 17-7 record, delivering the program’s most wins since 2003 and the third-most in program history. The team appeared twice in the ITA National Rankings, including a program-highest 61st (Feb. 20) – finishing the season at No. 8 in the formidable ITA Texas Regional rankings for the highest regional position since 2009.

Opening on the best start since 2007, Kroll’s Roadrunners went 9-3 to kick off the 2024 slate. The Roadrunners finished the campaign with a 9-0 mark at home, their first undefeated home record since 1992. However, UTSA also battled out the highest-ranked win in the 21st century on the road in toppling 55th-ranked Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton. In the program’s inaugural season at the American Athletic Conference Championships, UTSA earned an opening-round victory over Tulane to advance in a conference tournament for the second consecutive year.

Kroll continues to push team success in the classroom as Cassie McLay and Aleksandra Zlatarova were named to the 2024 College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team, also earning ITA Scholar-Athlete accolades. Meanwhile, as a team Kroll’s Roadrunners logged its third consecutive season with a perfect Academic Progress Rate (APR), the second straight year recording a perfect 1,000 multiyear APR and a 100 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in 2023-24.

With six seasons in the books, Kroll has steadily shifted the Roadrunners into new territory, moving from eight wins in the season before his arrival to back-to-back winning seasons with a 65-percent win rate over the past two campaigns. He has coached 28 ITA Scholar-Athletes and boasts five consecutive ITA All-Academic Team recognition (from 2020-2024).

A former head men’s coach at Northern Arizona and Southern Miss, Kroll was named the UTSA women’s tennis coach on August 27, 2018, as announced by Vice President for Athletics Dr. Lisa Campos.

Kroll came to the Roadrunners after serving as the men’s tennis coach at Northern Arizona for five seasons, where he was both the men’s and women’s head coach in his final season in Flagstaff. Before that, he held a three-year stint as the head coach at Southern Miss. 

“I’m very excited to be joining the UTSA family; the staff, coaches and faculty have shown me true Texas hospitality,” Kroll said at the time of his hiring. “I would especially like to thank Dr. Lisa Campos, who has placed her confidence in me. This is a wonderful opportunity, we have a great group of ladies, and I’m extremely eager to get started. I look forward to hitting the ground running and will put all my effort into moving this program in a championship direction. Go Roadrunners!”

While with Northern Arizona, Kroll amassed 82 wins, including three conference titles, 21 all-conference honorees, a two-time league MVP, freshman of the year, ITA Mountain Region Rookie of the Year and an ITA Mountain Regional doubles champion. In the classroom, Kroll’s teams earned 11 all-conference academic honors and 27 Golden Eagle Scholar-Athletes and boasted an ITA All-Academic Team honoree.

In the spring of 2017, Kroll's NAU squad finished with a 15-8 overall including a 10-1 run in the Big Sky, one of the best seasons in program history. His top recruit, Tim Handell was named Big Sky MVP in addition to picking up All-Big Sky First Team recognition in both singles and doubles.

Not only did Kroll lead the men's tennis program to success in 2017, but also the women's tennis program. In his first season with the women, Kroll and the Lumberjacks finished 18-5 overall, notched an undefeated 11-0 record in the Big Sky and garnered a back-to-back regular season championship title. Kroll’s top recruit went on to be named ITA Mountain Rookie of the Year and Big Sky Co-Freshman of the Year (Chiara Tomasetti) and notched All-Big Sky First Team honors in both singles and doubles.

Kroll came to Flagstaff after serving as the head coach at Southern Miss from 2011-13, where he produced an impressive three-year stint that saw the program recover from NCAA violations to reach a national ranking, a 15-win season and a top-notch recruiting class.

Before Southern Miss, Kroll served in dual roles as the men’s tennis coach and the Assistant Athletic Director/Business Manager at Vassar College, where he led the Brewers to three consecutive NCAA Division III Tournaments from 2005-10. He was a three-time Liberty League Coach of the Year during his five seasons. Throughout his coaching career at Vassar, Kroll coached four All-Americans, the 2010 and 2011 ITA Northeast Singles champion, the 2008 ITA Northeast Doubles champions, 18 All-Academic selections and one Capital One Academic All-American.

Kroll also received national acclaim for his involvement as the Director of Tennis at the Andre Agassi Boys & Girls Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most notably, he is credited with developing a strong inner-city tennis program for Andre Agassi into one of the most successful programs of its type in the country. A number of his former students went on to be ranked in the top-five nationally in junior tennis, earning opportunities to represent the United States in international play. Several players went on to play Division I tennis as well as professionally.

Kroll played collegiately at Penn State, received his bachelor's degree in History from Eastern New Mexico University and his Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona.