HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison University Director of Athletics Jeff Bourne announced Thursday that women’s tennis Head Coach Shelley Jaudon will depart the university after five years to accept the head coaching position at the University of Kentucky.

JMU will begin a national search immediately for the program’s next head coach.

“Shelley Jaudon has done an incredible job with our women’s tennis program and left a lasting impact,” Bourne said. “She guided JMU to its first two conference titles in program history, and it could have been more if not for factors beyond her control. Her successor will inherit a program poised for continued success at the top of the Sun Belt. We wish her and her family all the best in their new opportunity at Kentucky.”

“Being entrusted to lead the JMU women’s tennis program over the last five years has been an honor and an experience that I will always be grateful for,” Jaudon said. “The girls in this program believed in my vision from day one, and we have been able to build this program to a high level by investing in each other, and for that I am so proud. JMU will forever be a special place to my family, and I look forward to being the biggest JMU women’s tennis fan. I would like to thank Jeff Bourne and the late Tom Kuster for giving me the opportunity to come be a part of the JMU family.”

Jaudon, who was hired on June 13, 2018, elevated the JMU women’s tennis program to heights it has never reached over her five seasons. She led the Dukes to a 62-36 overall record (.633) and to the program’s first two conference championships and team berths into the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship.

Her tenure in Harrisonburg included most recently a 15-win season in the program’s first year in the Sun Belt Conference, as well as a pair of 14-win campaigns. She guided JMU to Colonial Athletic Association championships in both 2019 and 2021, years in which she was also voted CAA Coach of the Year.

JMU reached its highest national ranking ever in 2021, ending the year ranked #59 to earn a spot in the 2022 ITA Kickoff the following year. While with the Dukes, they produced 13 all-conference singles selections, and five doubles teams were honored on all-conference squads.

The Dukes excelled off the court as well, as her team has been honored as an ITA All-Academic Team in her first four seasons, with a fifth expected this summer. A total of 21 student-athletes have received ITA Scholar-Athlete status, with four more in line to receive the honor in the coming months.

Outgoing senior Kylie Moulin also received major academic and leadership awards recently. She was the 2022 recipient of both the ITA Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship in the Atlantic Region and the Casey Carter JMU Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She also won the 2021-22 CAA Institutional Scholar-Athlete of the Year and 2020-21 CAA Leadership & Sport Excellence Awards.

— JMU Athletics —