After a stellar playing career from 2014-18, Bridget Disher joined the coaching ranks and has been a member of the Emory University Women’s Tennis coaching staff since the 2018-19 season. She was elevated to assistant coach in June 2021 prior to becoming Interim Head Coach in August 2022. On January 31, 2023, Disher was officially named the head coach of the women's tennis program.
In three seasons as head coach, Disher has seen her team record an overall record of 48-18, advancing to the UAA championship match each season as well as deep runs in the NCAA tournament including Final Four berths in 2023 and 2025.
The 2024-25 season, Disher and the Eagles made it back to the national semifinals led by UAA Most Valuable Player Emily Kantrovitz. With Kantrovitz at the top of the lineup, the Eagles went 18-6 - the most wins in a season since 2019. She was ranked as the No. 1 singles player in the country for a majority of the spring and advanced to the national semifinals in singles at the NCAA Individual Championships. Kantrovitz was one of four ITA All-Americans Disher mentored during the year while she saw five claim All-UAA honors.
Under her leadership during the 2023-24 season, the Eagles posted a record of 16-5 while making a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Division III National Championship. For the seventh consecutive season, the Eagles faced the Chicago Maroons in the UAA Championship match and finished as the runner-up. The team saw three student-athletes chosen to participate in the NCAA Individual Championships and had two student-athletes tabbed as ITA All-Americans. She mentored each of her athletes to All-UAA acclaim including Ana Cristina Perez who earned recognition as the ITA Regional Senior Player of the Year. The honors continued rolling in as Izzy Antanavicius was named the ITA Regional Player to Watch and Disher was tabbed as the ITA Regional Coach of the Year. On the conference level, the coaching staff was selected as the 2023-24 UAA Coaching Staff of the Year.
In her first season as head coach, Disher led the Eagles on a run to the semifinals of the NCAA Division III National Championship in May. The team finished with a 14-7 record in the spring including wins against then-ranked No. 8 Tufts and No. 10 ranked Sewanee. Disher's squad made it to the finals of the UAA Championships to face the Chicago Maroons for the sixth season in a row. Three student-athletes were selected to participate in the NCAA Division III Individual Championships and also earned ITA All-America honors. Disher mentored six players to All-UAA acclaim including Stephanie Shulman who also earned regional and national recognition as the ITA Most Improved Senior.
As a four-year member of the program, Disher was a three-time All-American in both singles and doubles, finishing her career as Emory’s all-time leader with 113 doubles victories while ranking third with 106 singles wins, just one of three players in program history to post 100 or more triumphs in both categories. She recorded 24 or more singles victories in each of her four campaigns (played in the #1 spot her final three seasons) including her senior season mark of 25-10. Named by the University Athletic Association as Player of the Year in her final two campaigns, Disher was also tabbed as the ITA 2017-18 Atlantic South Region Senior Player of the Year. In 2017-18, she, along with Ysabel Gonzalez-Rico, established a school seasonal mark with 34 doubles wins en route to advancing to the semifinal round at the NCAA D-III Championships. As a junior, Disher became just the third player in Emory women’s tennis history to record 30 or more wins in both singles and doubles competition in a single season, posting a career-high 30 singles victories (30-11) while racking up 31 doubles wins (31-10). She was a NCAA D-III Championships participant in both singles and doubles her final three years, reaching the NCAA semifinals in doubles as a junior and senior and the NCAA Semifinals in singles once as a junior. Disher added a NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient to her resume in July of 2018 and was a three-time UAA All-Academic Team selection, three-time UAA President’s Council Scholar Athlete and named to the Emory Class of 2018 100 Senior Honorary.
During her stint in the program, Emory compiled a dual record of 87-21, won the 2016 NCAA Division III National Championship, brought home three national runner-up finishes and claimed four UAA titles.
