Eastern Illinois athletics has announced the hiring of Lois (pronounced Loy-ce) Alexis as the Panthers new women's tennis coach.
Alexis comes to EIU following a two-year stint as the head coach of Jackson State University where she oversaw both the men's and women's programs. Just prior to taking over the Panthers program this fall she guided Jackson State's men's program to the 2017 Fall HBCU National Championship in September. Her women's team placed second at the HBCU Championships. Her JSU women's doubles team of Lucia Solis and Tyler Smith were the No. 1 doubles team at the HBCU Championship.
In the spring of 2017 Alexis led both Tigers programs to second place finishes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) regular season standing. During both seasons at Jackson State she guided both programs to the championship finals of the SWAC Tournament. In her first season at JSU, the Tigers men's program won the SWAC Championship advancing to the NCAA Tournament where they lost to No. 4 TCU in the opening round. It was the first conference title for the JSU men's program in 18 years.
Prior to taking over the head coaching position at Jackson State, Alexis was an assistant coach for the Southern University women's tennis program from 2013-15. In addition Alexis has worked at several Elite Camps and served as a Tennis Pro/Specialist for the YMCA in Baton Rouge, La., Ministry Sports in Grenada and Camp Lokanda in New York.
An accomplished player, Alexis was a three-time first team All-SWAC singles and doubles player at Southern University twice winning the SWAC Championship. She made three NCAA Tournament appearances from 2011-13 earning both her Bachelors (2013) and Master's (2015) degrees from Southern University.
She was ranked the number one player in her native Grenada from 2002-14 and the number six ranked player in COTEC (Caribbean and Central America). She was the Champion of the ITF Tournament in Jamaica in 2004 and a finalist at the ITF in Barbados in 2004 and St. Lucia in 2004.
.
