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Carlos Lora has been named the new director of tennis of the Longwood men’s and women’s tennis teams, Longwood Athletic Director Tim Hall announced on Thursday afternoon.

“We are excited to have Carlos take over the leadership of our tennis program,” Hall said. “His experience, coupled with his enthusiasm and focus on the whole student-athlete both on and off the court makes for a great fit in our department. I am excited to see him guide our program forward into a future that looks incredibly bright.”

Lora comes to Farmville following a successful tenure over two seasons at the University of Mount Olive. During his two years, both his men’s and women’s teams achieved top 40 rankings.

He led the women’s team to back-to-back Conference Carolinas tournament titles. On the men’s side, the team advanced to the Conference Carolinas Tournament Semifinal in each season with a trip to the finals in his first year leading the team.

He guided the Mount Olive women’s team to history at the Division II power by going unbeaten in conference regular season play in 2022. That team then polished off the season sweep by winning the conference tournament to earn a berth in the NCAA National Tournament.

“I would like to first and foremost thank Mr. Tim Hall, Iain Byers and the rest of the search committee for their support and for providing me with this tremendous opportunity to lead both tennis programs into a new chapter,” Lora said. “I am very excited to get started with the team and to lead these tremendous student-athletes into success on and off the court.”

Throughout his coaching career, Lora has focused on helping players develop both on and off the court. In 2022, he had a men’s player, Armando Ferreira, named a finalist for the ITA Ann Lebedeff Leadership Award. In addition, he had several players earn national rankings during his time at Mount Olive. His doubles pairing of Yelyzaveta Voloshyna and Nele Weber ranked the highest, at No. 25.

Lora started his coaching career as an assistant at Averett University after playing there for four seasons and serving as a team captain for two. During his time at Averett, he helped the team earn multiple all-conference selections and helped Heidi Sarkkinen achieve a No. 21 ranking nationally during the 2018-19 season. In addition, he helped coach a player to the NCAA Individual Championships in the spring of 2021.

From there, he moved to Purdue University as a volunteer assistant on the women’s tennis team. While in West Lafayette, he continued to hone his skills in film analysis and breakdowns to help players improve, and he helped coach Csilla Fodor to a singles national ranking of No. 111.

He holds his bachelor’s degree in athletic training from Averett in 2018 before earning his master’s from Averett in 2020.