Santa Strombacha - Tennis Coach - University of Houston Athletics

Santa Strombacha

Title:
Graduate Assistant
Email:
smstromb@cougarnet.uh.edu

Santa Strombacha enters her first season on the Houston Tennis staff as a graduate assistant after a successful playing career at Houston and Grand Canyon.

In 2026, Strombacha helped Houston to its first 11-0 start since 1990 with eight-straight sweeps to open th season for the first time in program history. Among those eight sweeps the first five were all on the road which was a first for the program. She helped coach a pair of Big 12 Tennis Players of the Week as Valeriia Krokhotina and Chems Doha Zeghlouli earned the honor during the season.

Strombacha helped the Cougars to a 17-6 record and an 8-6 ledger in conference action. Houston finished tied for sixth in the league and qualified for the Big 12 Tournament. Zeghlouli and Sophie Schouten earned All-Big 12 Second Team Doubles honors for the first postseason awards since 2023 and the first for the Cougars since as a member of the Big 12.

Schouten and Krokhotina went 17-1 and 14-1 respectively in singles and finished the year at second and third in the program's single-season singles winning percentage.

As the lone senior in 2025, Strombacha helped the Cougars to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2018, including back-to-back sweeps for the first time since 2006, as well as their first win in Big 12 Conference play. During the fall, she spent the entire campaign ranked in the ITA singles poll after tallying a pair of ranked singles victories.

Strombacha was the first Cougar to be ranked in the ITA preseason poll since 2015 and reached as high as No. 79 in the rankings. She was also selected to the ITA All-American and Sectional Championships in the fall, reaching the Second Round in the All-American and the Quarterfinals in the Sectional Championships.

A staple on the top two courts in her career, Strombacha helped GCU to a pair of WAC Championships and NCAA Tournament Appeareances. She was named to the First Team All-WAC Singles and Doubles teams in all three seasons during her time in Phoenix as she posted 51 singles and 49 doubles wins.