Staff Directory
- Title:
- Cornelia Drake and John Van Ryn Jr. '28 Assistant Coach of Tennis
Assistant coach Matt Lucas is in his fourth season on the Princeton staff in 2008-09 and has helped the Tigers improve markedly in his time with the program.
“We are fortunate to have Matt in the program,” says head coach Glenn
Michibata. “The team gets the benefit of someone who has very
recent experience of what it takes to excel in Division I tennis. Matt
also has very good coaching skills and is able to teach what he has
learned.”
Lucas is a 2002 graduate of North Carolina State University and was a standout player for the Wolfpack men’s tennis team. He played both No. 1 singles and doubles as a senior and No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles his junior year. As a junior, he reached as high as No. 63 in the ITA national singles rankings.
Prior to transferring to N.C. State, Lucas played two seasons at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. He was named the Southern Conference Freshman of the Year in 1998 and an all-conference pick in both 1998 and 1999. The Most Valuable Player for the Mountaineers in each of his two seasons, he played No. 1 singles as a sophomore and No. 2 singles as a freshman, winning more than 20 matches in each of those seasons.
After graduating with a degree in sociology from NCSU, Lucas played professional tennis for two years both in the United States and abroad. He earned a world ranking in doubles, where he reached a semifinal in an Australian futures event, and also accumulated several singles wins over current top 500 players on the ATP Tour.
Before coming to Princeton, Lucas had spent the previous two years as the Director of Junior Tennis
Development at the Chapel Hill Country Club in Chapel Hill, N.C.
