Utah State University Athletics

Veronika Golanova is entering her fourth season as head coach after being hired in May 2023. Before that, she spent three years as an assistant coach for the Utah State women’s tennis program.

In the 2025-26 season, Golanova led the Aggies to one of the best seasons in program history as USU went 12-11 overall with a 5-6 showing during MW play plus an opening-round win over San Jose State in the Mountain West Tournament. Utah State's 12 wins were the most by the program since 2019 while its five conference wins were an all-time best. The Aggies won four-straight matches to begin MW play, the team's first four-match streak since 2022 and first ever such streak in conference play. Golanova helped Terezia Mlkva to MW Freshman of the Year honors, USU's first-ever conference superlative award in program history, plus All-MW Singles honors. 

In 2024-25, Golanova led USU to a 5-16, earning three-straight wins to begin the season. Golanova also helped Indya Nespor to a sixth-place finish at the MW Fall Individuals during the fall tournament season. Utah State placed three on the CSC Academic All-District Team as Cielo Tapia-Cruz, Olivia Halvorsen and Niyati Kukreti each received the honor.

During the 2023-24 campaign, Golanova’s squad posted an overall record of 5-17 and a conference record of 1-9. The team posted an upset win in the first round of the Mountain West Tournament, defeating Fresno State 4-2 to advance to the quarterfinals. Golanova also guided the doubles duo of graduate senior Zeynep Naz Ozturk and senior Laura Fernanda Eugenio De Hilario to earn All-Tournament doubles team honors.

As an assistant coach, Golanova  helped the Aggies to four spots on the all-Mountain West singles team as Zeynep Naz Ozturk, Carolina Millan (twice) and Zara Ryan each earned the award. The Aggies also garnered a total of 20 academic all-MW, 13 MW Scholar-Athlete and five ITA Scholar-Athlete honors in Golanova's first three years with the program.
 
Golanova came to USU after spending the 2019-20 season as a volunteer assistant coach at her alma mater, Illinois State. The Redbirds posted a 6-7 record in the season shortened by the COVID-19 pandemic, ending the year with a 4-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana. She also spent the academic year doing graduate assistantships in teaching and professional practice.
 
As a player at ISU, Golanova was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, earning the honor in 2018 and 2019. She also earned MVC all-conference honors at the No. 1 singles position both of those years, and was on the all-MVC doubles team in 2016. Golanova ended her career with a 52-36 singles record, while going 67-29 in doubles action.
 
Golanova played her freshman season at Georgia State, where she posted a 6-3 record at No. 6 singles play that spring. A native of Roznov Pod Radhostem, Czech Republic, she won the national championship for 14-16-year-olds in 2008 and placed third in the championship for 16-18-year-olds in 2011.
 
Golanova graduated from Illinois State with a bachelor's degree in exercise science in 2018 and a master's in sport psychology in 2020.