Chattanooga native Katie Hangstefer knew it since she played tennis in college: She wanted to coach a college team one day.

This week, Wofford College named the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga player as its head women’s tennis coach.

Hangstefer joined the Terriers’ coaching staff last September as an assistant to head coach Rod Ray, overseeing the women’s program. Ray will now solely coach the men’s team.

This season, she helped direct the Lady Terriers to an impressive 11-2 record and a first-round bye in the Southern Conference tournament.

“This season was a lot of fun and a lot of work,” Hangstefer said. “We got off to a great start at 11-2. If I didn’t have the players I had, we wouldn’t have been able to do that, and they responded well to me coming in.”

In 2007, Hangstefer served as men’s and women’s head coach during the inaugural year of Covenant College’s tennis programs. She worked as a tennis instructor around Chattanooga after graduating from UTC in 2002 with a degree in a business management with concentrations in general management and human resource management.

Ray, who just finished his eighth year as head coach, knew Hangstefer when she played for UTC and knew her family through USTA junior tennis.

“We knew we were going to make the switch to have someone else coach the women’s team, and we hired Katie knowing she was going to do a great job,” Ray said. “We were able to make that promotion happen. She’s been acting as head women’s coach this season, and she’s a natural at coaching. We’re fortunate to have her at Wofford.”

Hangstefer shared a year on the UTC squad with brothers John, who earned a master’s degree in 2005, and Michael, a 2007 alum. Her youngest sister, Emily, recently signed scholarship papers to play for the Lady Mocs in 2008-09.

“When I was playing in college, it was great experience and I was sad when my career ended,” Katie Hangstefer said. “I thought it would be fun to coach. I worked for four years and then got back into coaching, getting a great start at Covenant and Wofford. It’s been everything I imagined and more.”