Navy head coach Keith Puryear has named Alessandra Pedergnana as the assistant coach for the women's tennis program. The team will play a club schedule in its transitional year in the spring of 2009, before taking on varsity status in the fall of 2009.

"She will be a great addition to the Naval Academy family. I coached her as a player for four years and this will be her fourth year as an assistant coach with me. She is very knowledgeable about the game, has a great handle on recruiting and we think she will be a very strong asset to our tennis program," said Puryear. "She also had great success on the court, serving as a team captain during her junior and senior years and should be inducted into the UMBC Hall of Fame when she becomes eligible. I am very excited that she will be part of our staff here at Navy."

"I would like to thank Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk, and head women's tennis coach Keith Puryear for this opportunity," said Pedergnana. "It is both an honor and a privilege to be apart of the Naval Academy and I look forward to assisting coach Puryear in developing a women's team here at Navy that is successful both on and off the court."

Pedergnana will join Puryear as they lead Navy into its transitional year in 2009. Pedergnana became an assistant coach at UMBC in the fall of 2006 after four outstanding years on the courts for the Retrievers. The duo of Puryear and Pedergnana earned America East Coaching Staff of the Year honors for both men's and women's tennis in the 2006-07 campaigns after leading the men's team to their first America East Championship and the women's team to the conference finals.

Pedergnana put together an outstanding four-year career on the tennis courts for the Retrievers. As a freshman, Pedergnana won 27 matches and was named all-Northeast Conference in the Northeast Conference. She earned all-America East honors in 2004 and gradually rose to the top of the UMBC "ladder" and played at number one singles during her junior and senior seasons. As a senior, she won her 100th career match in UMBC's most impressive win of the year, a 4-3 triumph over Army. The native of Queens, N.Y., won her last eleven singles matches of the season and finished the campaign with an impressive 13-4 record.

At the junior level, Pedergnana was ranked as high as fifth in the nation in doubles, was in the top 50 in the nation in singles and in the top five in the Eastern section. She won a bronze ball at the 2002 Winter Super Nationals and a silver ball at the 2006 USTA National Women's Open Indoor Championship in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., both in doubles competition.

Pedergnana was named one of two Outstanding Senior Female Athletes of the Year at the 2006 UMBC Varsity Awards ceremony. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2006 and is currently attending graduate school pursuing a master's degree in adolescent psychology. She resides in Ellicott City, Md.

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