STILLWATER – One of the most impactful players in Oklahoma State women's tennis history is returning to her alma mater with the appointment of former Cowgirl standout Katarina Adamovic as the program's seventh head coach.
Pending approval by the OSU/A&M Board of Regents, Adamovic returns to Stillwater after spending the past two seasons as the head coach at Houston.
During her OSU playing days, Adamovic had a major impact on the Cowgirls earning a place among the nation's elite from 2014-17. She immediately began her coaching career after graduation, spending four years as an assistant at Cincinnati and one as an assistant at Missouri before being named head coach at Grand Canyon in 2022. She led the Lopes into national relevance for two seasons before taking the head coaching job at Houston in 2024, where she engineered one of the most significant program turnarounds in the nation.
"Coming back to Oklahoma State means everything to me," Adamovic said. "This program and this university helped shape who I am, and it's an honor to return and lead the team that gave me so much. I want to thank Chad Weiberg, Jason Lewis, Karen Hancock and Dustin Taylor for their belief and trust in me.
"Oklahoma State has a powerful legacy, and I have great respect for the standard that's been built here," Adamovic said. "It's an honor to carry that forward and build on what so many have created before me. I'm excited to come back, raise the standard even further, and build a program that competes for championships at the highest level.
"I can't wait to get to Stillwater and get to work."
While playing for the Cowgirls, Adamovic's style was electric and lifted the program to a new level of achievement. Her natural energy, passion and fire fueled a career that produced All-America honors as well as MVP accolades at the 2016 NCAA Tournament, where she led OSU to a program-best national runner-up finish. Adamovic's name is still prominent in the program's record book, including the top spot in career doubles winning percentage during the Big 12 era.
Those same traits have translated into her coaching success.
"As a star athlete, Kat embodied what college tennis is all about and was instrumental in helping establish Oklahoma State as a championship level program," OSU Athletic Director Chad Weiberg said. "We are thrilled to now be bringing her back home as the next head coach of Cowgirl Tennis."
At Houston, Adamovic inherited a program that was 2-19 overall and 0-13 in the Big 12 the year prior to her arrival. She transformed it into one that went 17-6 overall and 8-5 in the league just two years later.
In 2026, Adamovic coached the Cougars to as high as No. 29 in the ITA rankings. It was the highest ITA ranking for Houston in more than 10 years and marked just the 11th ITA weekly ranking inside the top 30 for UH since 1990. Houston started the season by winning its first 11 matches. Of those 11 wins, nine were shutouts and two came over ranked opponents. Winning 11 straight marked the second-best start to a season in program history.
The Cougars went 4-16 in Adamovic's first year at Houston, but the 13-win improvement from her first season to her second marked the second-largest year-over-year improvement in the history of the program.
Before Houston, Adamovic established herself as a dynamic young head coach during her two seasons at Grand Canyon (2023 and 2024). She led the Lopes to the NCAA Tournament in both of her seasons. Prior to her arrival, GCU had only been to the NCAA Tournament once in program history.
The 2024 WAC Coach of the Year, Adamovic coached GCU to the program's first appearance in the ITA rankings that season, with the Lopes climbing as high as No. 49. She led Grand Canyon to the regular-season league championship, the conference tournament championship, an appearance in the NCAA Tournament and the best record in the history of the program.
The 2024 WAC regular-season championship marked just the second in Grand Canyon women's tennis history. She also led the Lopes to WAC tournament championships in 2023 and 2024. It was the first time Grand Canyon had ever won back-to-back conference tournament championships.
In 2023, Adamovic's first year as a head coach, GCU improved its win total by seven, tied for the third largest in program history. The following year, the Lopes improved by seven more matches to enjoy the best season in program history.
By the time she left for Houston, Adamovic was the owner of the best coaching win percentage in Grand Canyon history.
Adamovic began her coaching career at Cincinnati as an assistant coach for the women's tennis team from 2018-21. The Bearcats finished with winning records in her first two seasons on staff and advanced to the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament in 2018, the program's best finish in three seasons.
Following her time at Cincinnati, Adamovic spent the 2021-22 season as an assistant coach at Missouri. While on staff, the Tigers recorded their second-best finish in the SEC, one of the toughest conferences in the country.
Prior to coaching, Adamovic played for outstanding Oklahoma State teams. Her final two seasons resulted in back-to-back Big 12 regular-season championships, a Big 12 tournament title, an NCAA runner-up finish and a pair of trips to the NCAA Elite Eight. In those same two seasons, OSU had a combined record of 54-11 and spent 19 weeks in the top 10 of the ITA rankings.
Her list of collegiate honors is headlined by the following:
- 2016 Singles All-American
- 2016 NCAA Championship Most Outstanding Player
- 2016 NCAA Championship all-tournament team in both singles and doubles
- 2015 All-Big 12 in both singles and doubles
- 2016 All-Big 12 in both singles and doubles
- 2017 All-Big 12 in both singles and doubles
- 2014 Big 12 position champion at No. 4 singles
- 2015 ITA Central Region singles champion
- 2016 Academic All-Big 12 second team
In her four years as a Cowgirl, Adamovic compiled a 75-42 record in singles and a 91-23 record in doubles. As a junior in 2016, she teamed with Vladica Babic to go 32-3 in doubles play. She was 23-11 in singles that season, highlighted by a team-high 10 wins over ranked opponents. She advanced to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Singles Championship.
In her senior year, she went 21-9 in singles with five wins over ranked opponents.
Her signature traits were athleticism, competitiveness and fiery on-court demeanor. Those traits were so overwhelmingly apparent that then-OSU women's basketball head coach Jim Littell offered Adamovic a scholarship position on his roster for the 2017-18 season to bring her influence to his team. Adamovic appeared in three games that season and was a key off-the-court influence on a team that went 21-11 and won an NCAA Tournament game.
A native of Cacak, Serbia, Adamovic was a Serbian national champion in the seniors, U18, U16, U10 and junior divisions. She was ranked in the WTA in singles and doubles.
