Winterhalter comes to Saint Mary’s after seven years as head coach at Cal Poly, leading the Mustangs to their best two seasons in over a decade during her final two years. Cal Poly is coming off a 17-7 overall record and an 8-1 Big West Conference record, finishing in second place and ranked 70th in the ITA rankings.
No stranger to the Gaels, Winterhalter served as the associate head coach at Saint Mary’s from 2011-14. Previously she spent three years as an assistant coach with the Gaels from 2008-11.
“We are very excited to announce Katharina as our new head women's tennis coach. Katharina has a great reputation on the West Coast, performed at a high-level as a student-athlete and brings tremendous success as a head coach,” Matoso said. “We are excited about the future of our women's tennis program under her leadership and welcome her back into the Gael Family.”
In 2021, Winterhalter led the Mustangs to a record of 14-3, the program's most wins in a season since 2011. They had a Big West record of 6-2 and finished in third place during the regular season which was also the highest since 2011. The team reached the championship match of the Big West Tournament for the first time since 2007. They ended the season ranked No. 62 in the country in the final ITA poll. Winterhalter also saw five of her players named to the All-Conference teams.
“I would like to thank Mike Matoso, Kami Gray and Staci Byrne for giving me the opportunity to lead the women’s tennis program at Saint Mary’s,” Winterhalter said. “I am excited to be a Gael again, and can’t wait to get to work with our student-athletes. Saint Mary’s women’s tennis has been under great leadership and I look forward to continuing and growing that legacy.”
During her time at Saint Mary's, Winterhalter coached three WCC players of the year, three individual NCAA Championship participants, one NCAA singles All-American and earned Northwest Regional Assistant Coach of the Year honors in 2010. She helped coach Saint Mary's to a win over No. 7 Stanford in 2013 (at the time, only the third team to beat Stanford at home since 1999).
As a player at Fresno State for four seasons (2002-06), Winterhalter compiled a 105-49 record in singles competition and 104-40 in doubles. She was an NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championships Doubles runner-up in 2006 and a Women's All-American Tennis Championships Doubles runner-up during the 2005 season. Also in 2006, Winterhalter earned ITA Scholar-Athlete status and was named the Fresno State Athlete of the Year.
Winterhalter helped the Bulldogs to four straight Western Athletic Conference Championships and assisted Fresno State to the Round of 16 during the NCAA Division I Championships in both 2004 and 2006. Nationally ranked in both singles and doubles during her time at Fresno State, Winterhalter also earned All-American honors in doubles during the 2005-06 season.
Winterhalter is a 2006 graduate of Fresno State with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and earned her master's degree in kinesiology at Saint Mary's in 2012. She also has another master's degree in leadership studies from Fresno Pacific.
