Stony Brook Director of Athletics Shawn Heilbron announced the hiring of Thiago Dualiby as the next head coach of Stony Brook tennis on August 29, 2023.
In his first season at the helm, Dualiby led the Seawolves to three victories during the season including his first career win on Feb. 10 at Fairfield and first CAA victory of his career against Monmouth on Feb. 24. He guided the team to their second-straight CAA Tournament appearance where the No. 7 Seawolves fell to UNCW in the First Round.
In his second season at the helm, Dualiby guided the team to a 10-10 overall record—a seven-win improvement from the previous year—and a 4-1 mark in CAA play, the best conference finish in program history. The team closed the season on a six-match winning streak, capped by Mia Palladino becoming the first player in program history to earn All-CAA honors.
Dualiby returned to collegiate tennis in his first head coaching role after a stint as the Master Tennis Pro and Excel Tennis Camp Director at Sportime Quogue, where he ran practices for top players, trained and supervised coaching staffs during camps and coached clinics and individual lessons of all levels. He began the role in 2019 while also serving a prior stint in the same position from May 2013-July 2016.
"We're really excited to have Thiago on board," Heilbron said. "He brings tremendous energy, passion for the game and a real desire to mentor our young women and help them be great both on the court and in the classroom."
Stony Brook will be Dualiby's fifth stop in college coaching and his fourth at the Division I level, most recently serving as an assistant coach with St. John's during the 2018-19 athletics year. The Red Storm went 13-7 that season and 5-2 in Big East play, reaching the conference semifinals.
He came to St. John's after coaching as a graduate assistant at Illinois State from 2016-18. With Dualiby on staff, the Redbirds went 24-22 across the 2017 and 2018 seasons, with a 9-3 combined record in the Missouri Valley Conference.
His first two stops in college coaching were the Assistant Men's and Women's Tennis Coach at the University of Mount Olive [N.C.] in 2012 and Fairleigh Dickinson University from 2012-13. Both FDU programs won their respective NEC championships in the 2013 season, with the men's program knocking off No. 1 seed Bryant for the title while the women's program also took the regular season championship that year. Mount Olive's men's program also took the Conference Carolinas' championship with Dualiby on staff.
His work at FDU also brought players to campus which started in the top two positions for the women's team.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude with bachelor's degrees in business management and environmental science from Mount Olive and later graduated with a Master of Science in Sport Management from Illinois State. He was a four-year starter in his collegiate career with the Trojans, gaining All-Conference First Team accolades in 2009.
Dualiby is a native of São Paulo, Brazil and is fluent in three languages – Portuguese, English and Spanish.
"First, I would like to thank Patrick Muffley, Shawn Heilbron and the entire search committee for this incredible opportunity to lead Stony Brook's women's tennis program," Dualiby said. "From the moment I stepped onto campus, I could feel the energy and commitment to improving student-athletes' lives and the incredible dynamic within the department."
