WORCESTER, Mass. – Worcester State University's Assistant Women's Tennis Coach, Courteney Blais, has been promoted to interim Head Coach, as announced by Worcester State's Director of Athletics, Michael Mudd, on Monday morning.
Previous head coach, Albana Xhemollari has stepped down as she recently accepted a professional opportunity outside of tennis. Xhemollari will continue coaching as Courteney's assistant for the upcoming fall season.
"We congratulate Albana on the new exciting opportunity in her professional life," said Mudd. "She has done a great job improving our tennis program during her tenure as Head Coach and we are appreciative of her staying on this season in more of a supportive role."
"At the same time we are excited to pass the baton to Courteney Blais to become the interim Head Tennis Coach and have no doubt that she will do a terrific job developing student-athletes," said Mudd.
Blais has helped guide the Lancers to three Little East Tournament appearances in her three years with the Worcester State University Tennis team. One year, of which, was the Little East playoffs with a semifinals appearance during the 2013 season.
"I am very honored and excited to be given the opportunity to take the lead role of the tennis program at Worcester State University," said Blais. "Coach Xhemollari did a great job of getting this program in position to be successful and I plan to build on the success we've had in the past couple of seasons. It's clear Worcester State is a special place that continues to grow and change and I'm thrilled to be a part of it."
In addition to coaching for the Lancers Tennis team over the past couple years, Blais also took the reigns as head coach at Bancroft School located in Worcester. She had previously piloted the middle school and junior varsity girls program since 2011.
Prior to her term as assistant coach with the Lancers, Blais was a two-year member of the Lancer women's tennis team. She was captain her senior year and joined the 25-point club with a 10-3 mark in singles play in 2010.
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