Charlotte Clarke is in her third season as Director of Tennis at Longwood in 2026-27 after being hired Aug. 23, 2024.
Clarke led the Lancers to banner seasons on both the women’s and men’s teams in 2025-26, helping the women earn a share of its first-ever Big South Conference regular-season championship and the top seed in the league tournament. Longwood finished the season 9-8 overall while knocking off perennial Big South power Charleston Southern, 4-2, on the road on March 19.
Clarke was named Big South Coach of the Year on the women’s side with Hima Fernando earning conference Freshman of the Year honors, pacing six Lancers who claimed year-end honors. Junior Feline van Eijkelenburg also picked up Big South Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors, a first for Longwood in either women’s or men’s tennis history.
Fernando claimed second-team singles honors, while classmate Bali Song (first-team singles and doubles), senior Oriana Izarra (second-team doubles), sophomore Alexandra Magia (second-team singles and doubles) and van Eijkelenburg (first-team singles and second-team doubles) also earned all-conference honors.
Fernando, Magia and van Eijkelenburg each went 3-0 in Big South singles play on the season.
The Lancers’ men’s team posted their most dual-match wins since 2019, finishing 13-7 overall, while advancing to its first Big South championship match. Longwood then earned an invitation to the 2026 UTR Sports NIT Championship in Rome, Ga., falling to the Atlantic Sun Conference’s North Alabama.
During the season, the Lancers enjoyed winning streaks of four consecutive and nine-of-11 overall with milestone victories against in-state foes Richmond for a second straight season and at James Madison for the first time since 2008.
The Lancers are led by Big South Player of the Year and the league's individual singles champion, senior Timéo Puech, who has gone 22-6 in singles across all competitions this season, including a 10-3 mark at No. 1 this spring. He has won his last eight singles matches overall while also playing to a 16-14 mark at No. 1 doubles, primarily with partner Daniel Borisov. The pair became the first in Longwood history to earn a national ranking on Feb. 4, coming in at No. 61, according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
Overall, four different players earned a total of nine Big South year-end honors. Joining Puech, who claimed first-team singles and doubles plaudits for a second consecutive season, were junior Borisov (first-team doubles and second-team singles), senior Alejandro Uribe (second-team singles and doubles) and sophomore Daniel Lopez (second-team doubles).
Uribe was the only men's player this season to earn singles victories in all three Big South duals. Both Borisov and Uribe claimed Big South Player of the Week honors during the season, as well. Uribe earned the match-clinching singles wins against the Spiders and Dukes in a three-day span.
Clarke helped Puech into the win the 2025 Big South Men's Individual Tennis Championship in singles in the fall as the Maisons-Alfort, France native advanced to the ITA Conference Masters Championship in San Diego.
In her first season with the Lancers, Clarke helped the Longwood men's team to a 7-11 overall record, including going a 1-2 in the Big South. The Lancers advanced to the league semifinals, falling to UNC Asheville. Clarke guided graduate student Mauricio Gonzalez Paiva to Co-Big South Newcomer of the Year honors, marking the first time in Longwood men's and women's tennis history a student-athlete earned a major Big South year-end award.
Under Clarke's tutelage, four men's players were named to all-Big South -- Gonzalez Paiva (first-team doubles and second-team singles), junior Puech (first-team singles and doubles) classmate Uribe and freshman Marko Mrdak (first-team doubles).
Longwood finished the season ranked 10th in the ITA Atlantic Region.
On the women's side, Clarke's Lancers were 7-12 overall. Longwood enjoyed a three-match winning streak and were victors in five of seven dual matches from Feb. 8 at Campbell to March 4 against Norfolk State. The win at the Camels was the first against the former Big South foe since at least 2007.
Two doubles pairs -- Karina Rizvanova and Elizaveta Gnilozubova (first team) and Magia and van Eijkelenburg (second team) -- earned all-Big South honors.
Clarke helped three different men's players earn four Big South weekly honors on the season, while Magia was named Big South Freshman of the Week three times for the women's team.
Clarke, a native of Leicester, England, comes to Farmville following a rapid rise through the coaching ranks as an elite tennis coach. Most recently, she was the acting head coach and associate head coach of the nationally ranked men's and women's tennis teams at NCAA Division II Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C.
"We are excited to welcome Charlotte Clarke to the Longwood family," Longwood director of athletics Tim Hall said upon Clarke's hire. "She is wise beyond her years and is a strong relationship builder. Her program goals, vision and philosophy are extremely well thought out and fit perfectly with in the Longwood athletics culture. I am confident she will do great things as our Director of Tennis."
Clarke took over as acting head coach for the final month of the 2022-23 season, overseeing a team that consisted of All-South Atlantic Conference second team singles player Evgeniya Pugina and All-SAC first team doubles pair Alicia Wahlberg and Lucy Whelan.
This past season, she helped the No. 28-ranked women's team to a 14-5 overall record, going 9-3 in the SAC. Clarke helped guide the Bears' No. 38 men's team to 10-7 overall mark and 7-5 in conference.
Clarke mentored four All-SAC women's players, in 2023-24, including SAC Freshman of the Year Runa Muderrisogluand two all-league men's players.
"I am thrilled to have been named as the new Director of Tennis at Longwood University," said Clarke "As soon as I stepped onto campus, I knew Longwood was a special and unique place with an administration dedicated to athletic success and providing its student-athletes with the best possible experience. I want to personally thank athletic director Tim Hall for giving me the opportunity to expand both programs and I am looking forward to taking these student-athletes to the next level. I am excited to get to work with such an incredible athletic department and driven student-athletes."
A four-year standout and captain at Coker from 2018-21, Clarke finished her career sixth on the all-time career singles wins list and tied for fifth on the all-time career doubles wins list.
In the classroom, Clarke was a three-time member of the South Atlantic Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, a three-time recipient of the D2 ADA Academic Achievement Award, a member of two ITA All-Academic Teams and a two-time ITA Scholar-Athlete.
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in physical education with a concentration in exercise science, Clarke returned to her alma mater as an assistant coach for the 2021-22 season. That year, she helped the Cobras to 11 victories, including six on the women's side, while recruiting some of the most competitive teams in program history.
Clarke also spent 2021 as the head tennis professional at Hartsville (S.C.) Country Club and earned a master's of business administration from Lenoir-Rhyne in 2024.
