Carlos Lora came to Longwood as the Director of Tennis in the summer of 2023 and enters his second season in 2004-25.
“We are excited to have Carlos take over the leadership of our tennis program,” Longwood director of Athletic Tim Hall said of Lora upon his hire. “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 guided Longwood to its first Big South Conference tournament berth on the men's side since 2019 in his first season, leading the Lancers to an 8-8 overall mark. He helped Alejandro Hernandez and Timeo Puech to all-Big South honors with Puech garnering first team singles and second-team doubles recognition and Hernandez picking up second-team singles and doubles plaudits.
The Lancers' women's team in the first year under Lora went 7-10 overall and 1-4 in the league, winning three of its final four matches despite narrowly missing qualifying for the Big South tournament. Feline van Eijkelenburg and Oriana Izarra were named to the all-conference team with van Eijkelenburg earning second-team honors in both singles and doubles and Izarra claiming a second-team doubles nod.
Lora's charges excelled in the classroom in his first season, as well. Nine members of his teams, including five on the women's side earned ITA Scholar-Athlete honors, while both squads also claimed ITA All-Academic Team recognition. The women's team posted a cumulative 3.525 grade-point average and the men put up a 3.42 GPA for the year.
Lora came to Farmville following a successful tenure over two seasons at the 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 helped the Mount Olive women’s team make history 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 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 Division III Averett 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 as a volunteer assistant on the women’s tennis team. While in West Lafayette, Ind., 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.
