Lakeland University alum Brittany Jurek has been named head coach of the Muskies women's tennis team, as announced by Director of Athletics April Arvan.

Jurek takes over the head coaching position after serving as an assistant coach for the fall season. She replaces Tammy Utley, who coached the team the past three years and will continue as Lakeland's head softball coach.

Jurek is a former Muskie student-athlete who also has previous head coaching experience at the collegiate level.

Jurek came to Lakeland this summer as an assistant softball and women's tennis coach, and before that was the head softball coach at Northland College in Ashland, Wis., where she led the NCAA Division III program in 2017-18. Before that, she was an assistant coach at the University of Northwestern Ohio, an NAIA program where she was part of three consecutive winning seasons with the Racers and also was the head junior varsity coach for two years.

Jurek played both tennis and softball at Lakeland and excelled in both sports. She was a four-year member of the softball team at Lakeland from 2011-14 and a three-year member of the women's tennis program from 2011-13.

Jurek posted a career 28-9 singles record playing tennis and also went 20-17 in doubles play. Her career was highlighted by her being named first team all-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference as a senior when she was part of one of the most successful teams in program history, one that went 11-3 overall and finished second in the NACC regular season.

"Being back at Lakeland has been such a blessing," said Jurek. "Tennis was a big part of making my experience great here and I'm excited and grateful for this opportunity."

Jurek is a native of Gladstone in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and graduated from Lakeland with a degree in sociology and psychology.