Dané Vorster - Women's Tennis Coach - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Photo by: Jack Gilday

Dané Vorster

Title:
Head Coach
Years at GCU:
2nd
Email:
dane.vorster@gcu.edu
Alma Mater:
Portland State (B.S.), Northwestern (M.A.)

Dané Vorster enters her second season as the Grand Canyon women's tennis head coach for the 2025-26 season. She was appointed as the tenth head coach in GCU women's tennis history on June 17, 2024.

Vorster boasted an impressive resume in her first season as head coach. She was named WAC coach of the year, led the team to a third straight WAC tournament championship title, as well as securing a bid to the NCAA tournament. The Lopes earned four All-WAC honors in singles as well as first team All-WAC honors in doubles under Vorster in the 2024-25 season.

A native of Brisbane, Australia, Vorster played collegiate tennis at Texas A&M and Portland State. At Portland State, she ranked second in career wins and held the No. 1 singles position. She earned All-Big Sky first-team honors and was a three-time Academic All-Big Sky honoree during her time as a Viking.

Vorster joins GCU after two seasons as head coach of the Belmont women's tennis program, where she led the Bruins to top-three finishes in the Missouri Valley Conference both seasons. In 2024, she guided Belmont to a No. 9 finish in the final ITA Ohio Valley Region poll.

She began her coaching career at Northwestern, assisting the Wildcats to an undefeated 2018 Big Ten regular season championship.

Vorster's coaching resume also includes a three-year stint as an assistant coach at UC Santa Barbara, where the Gauchos won the Big West Tournament in 2021. UCSB went undefeated in the 2019 and 2021 regular seasons, winning the regular-season titles. She helped the Gauchos achieve a national ranking as high as No. 48.