Christine Gray enters her fourth season as an assistant coach with Auburn women[apos]s tennis. She joined the Tigers in 2009 after she served as head coach of the women[apos]s tennis team at Wellesley College.
2009-10 featured senior Fani Chifchieva being selected to the NCAA Singles Championship for the fourth-straight season and ending the year with a singles ranking of 31. She was also named ITA Southern Player of the Year.
That year the Tigers picked up wins over top 25-ranked South Carolina and Ole Miss, along with a victory over a third tournament team - TCU.
In her first season on The Plains in 2008-09, Gray helped the program to its third consecutive at-large bid to the NCAA championship and an end-of-season rank of 35. Chifchieva was selected as SEC Player of the Year and an All-American as she finished the season in the top 15 nationally among individuals.
Additionally, doubles tandem Alex Haney and Whitney Chappell ended 2009 as the 11th-ranked duo in Division I.
Gray coached Wellesley College to four straight New England Women[apos]s and Men[apos]s Athletic Conference Championships (2004-07) and earned two-straight NEWMAC Sportsmanship Awards.
In 2008, the team qualified for the NCAA Division III Championship for a fifth-straight year, advancing to the third round. Gray also coached two individuals to the NCAA Championships for the fourth consecutive year.
In her career at Wellesley, Gray earned Coach of the Year honors several times over. Most recently in 2008 she was named ITA Northeast Region Coach of the Year for the second time in her career (first in 2006). She was named NEWMAC Coach of the Year four years in-a-row, 2004-07. In 2006 she was also named U.S. Tennis Association New England College Coach of the Year, and in 2005 she was named U.S. Professional Tennis Association New England College Coach of the Year.
At Wellesley College, where she coached the team to a 119-38 record, Gray also served as assistant professor of physical education, while teaching courses in tennis, strength training and fusion fitness.
Before joining Wellesley, she served as assistant coach at Brown University in 1996.
A native of East Greenwich, R.I., Gray graduated from Brown University in 1992 with a bachelor of arts in international relations (international diplomacy foreign policy and German) and earned her master[apos]s of education in curriculum and teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1997.
Gray was a member of the Brown University varsity women[apos]s tennis team from 1988-1992. She was a captain from 1991-1992 and was a part of the 1991 Ivy League Championship team. She was named Outstanding Senior Athlete at Brown in 1992.
Gray was inducted into the Rhode Island Scholar-Athlete Hall of Fame in May 2004. She is married to Auburn head women[apos]s tennis coach Tim Gray.