BATON ROUGE — The LSU Athletic Department officially named Sandy Sureephong its assistant women’s tennis coach on Thursday, announced 11th-year head women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis.
“We’re really happy to have someone coming in here that has the amount of experience that she has,” said Minnis. “She has a great deal of experience in both singles and doubles play, and she will be an integral part of our program. We’re extremely optimistic about this season and we’re looking forward to the start of competition.”
Sureephong, a native of Haines City, Fla., was a four-time All-American at the University of Texas from 1995-99 and was ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation in singles play. She is currently the Longhorns’ third-ranked player all-time in winning percentage (.781) and finished her illustrious career with an overall record of 86-24.
She spent the last two years playing on the professional circuit against some of the top women’s tennis players in the world. Sureephong was the 168th-ranked player in the world in doubles play and No. 330 in singles.
“Her experiences both as a collegiate athlete and as a pro athlete should benefit our team both on and off the field,” Minnis said. “She’s been through the exact things that our girls are going through and she knows what it takes to win and to be the best.”
Sureephong earned her Bachelor’s degree in sport management from the University of Texas’ College of Education in December of 1999. She was included on the 1998 Fall and 1999 Spring Big 12 Conference Commissioner’s Honor Roll, she received the Texas Women’s Athletics 1999 Donna Lopiano/Jean Kaspar Scholarship, and earned the 1998 Anne Haskins Grousbeck Scholarship for Academic Accomplishment and Leadership.
The LSU women’s tennis team will begin its fall schedule this weekend as the Lady Tigers travel to Las Vegas, Nev., for the UNLV Invitational. The tournament is scheduled to begin on Friday with the championship rounds being held on Sunday.