Jan. 21, 2010

Los Angeles, Calif. - The LMU women's tennis program welcomes two new coaches and a Director of Operations to their staff. The Lions add the expertise and experience of new assistant coaches Cintia Tortorella and Eric Basica while former volunteer assistant coach Tami Adkins moves to the Director of Operations.

Assistant Coach, Cintia Tortorella, has over five years of experience as an intercollegiate tennis coach. She previously she coached for Baylor University and helped their tennis team to their first Big 12 conference title in 2002-2003 season. She also has had experience at West Coast Conference rival, Pepperdine where she helped the waves to win the WCC title and make NCAA championship appearances in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

The Buenos Aires native is a stellar tennis player herself and played for Pepperdine University where she still holds the record for most singles wins in a single season (1999). She also played professionally for five years where she achieved a world ranking of 227 in singles and 197 in doubles. Tortorella graduated from Pepperdine University and went on to graduate with a Masters of Science from Baylor University with an emphasis on Sports Management. She has currently been working for the LA Junior Chamber or Commerce as the Agassi Safe-Passage All-Stars Program Director. Her experience as a former athlete of the WCC and the professional circuit, in combination to her coaching experience will be an invaluable asset to the Lions.

Eric Basica will join the Lions as a volunteer assistant coach. Basica has an impressive history as a professional tennis coach and has been a hitting partner for top ranked WTA and ATP professionals including Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka and Carsten Ball. He also coached Maria Sharapova (currently ranked #14 in the WTA rankings) at the French Open, Sony Ericsson Open Miami and Istanbul and Zack Fleishman (ranked as high as #127 in the ATP rankings) during the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. A local of Palos Verdes, Basica also played professionally on the ATP Tour traveling worldwide and was ranked in the top 100 American players. Basica strong repertoire with the sport and experience training some of the top players worldwide will be a big contribution to the program.

Tami Adkins who has been a volunteer assistant coach for the past two years will become the Director of Operations for the Lions. Her dedication to the program as a volunteer assistant coach has been influential to the program and the Lions are thrilled to keep her on staff. Adkins is also very familiar to the West Coast Conference and was an all-conference point guard for USF. She also has a lot of experience as a collegiate coach and worked with LMU and USF on the basketball staff.

Current head coach Jamie Sanchez said, "We have in place a staff of incredible experience in the sport of tennis starting with 36 years of college coaching, melted with two highly qualified individuals who have professional playing and coaching experience in and with players ranked in the WTA and ATP. This staff brings a wealth of knowledge to a program primed and ready to make an impact nationally at the Division I Intercollegiate level."