TOWSON, Md. – Jamie Peterson has been named the Towson University head women's tennis coach. He served as the Tigers interim head coach last season after spending two years as an assistant coach of the program.
 
"I am honored to be given the opportunity of head women's tennis coach at Towson University," Peterson said. "Towson University and the sport of tennis are two things I have a tremendous amount of passion for having played four years and making a career in tennis.  I look forward to bringing that passion to the team and leading a positive culture of hard work, accountability and confidence that will breed team success."
 
In his one season as the interim head coach, Peterson led the Tigers to 13 wins and their fifth straight Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament appearance. Some of the team highlights included reaching the top 100 ITA Division I for the first time in school history, defeating the University of Buffalo who qualified for the NCAA tournament and beating the College of Charleston 5-2 who was #59 ITA for first time in school history.
 
The Tigers had three All-CAA selections. Juniors A.J. Gomer and Renate van Oorschodt were named Second Team All-CAA doubles, becoming the first doubles team in program history to earn end of the year honors. Junior Barbora Vasilkova earned a spot on the conference's All-Academic team.
 
An alum of the Towson men's tennis program, Peterson was a member of the Tiger roster from 1991-1995 as a four year starter and two time captain. He finished with a career singles record of 64-35, leaving him with the fourth-highest winning percentage and number of wins in the programs history. In 1993 and 1994, Peterson was a key member of teams that were back-to-back East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) conference tournament finalists. He played under Coach Tom Meinhardt who served as the men's coach for 25 years. Peterson graduated with a degree in Sports Management from Towson. 

After graduation from Towson, Peterson began a career as a full-time tennis teaching professional and earned a certification rating of Elite Tennis Professional by the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA), for whom he currently serves as the President of the Mid-Atlantic Region. He also served on the regional board of the United States Tennis Association from 2007-2011.
 
At the beginning of his teaching career, Peterson taught at local Baltimore Tennis Clubs such as L'Hirondelle Club and Homeland Racket Club before moving on as the Director of Tennis at the prestigious Chartwell Golf and Country Club in Severna Park, Maryland from 2001-2014.

Under Peterson's guidance, Chartwell became one of the most active tennis programs at a country club in Maryland and ran a high level prize money tournament, for which he was recognized regionally as Tournament Director of the Year in 2005 by the USTA. During his tenure at Chartwell and the other clubs, Peterson also competed regularly in singles and doubles competitions. He has won 10 Maryland State Open doubles titles with four different partners and was a national "25 and over" doubles finalist in 1999.
 
He earned the No. 1 ranking in the USTA Mid-Atlantic region for both the "35 and over" and "40 and over" singles divisions in 2010, 2011 and 2013. Peterson's national USTA ranking has been as high as No. 7 in the "40 and over" division for singles and No. 5 in the "35 and over" division for doubles. In addition to individual men's competition, Peterson has captained a 5.0 level team that reached the national championships in 2009 and captained the Mid-Atlantic Talbert Cup team to two championships in 2014 and 2015 in intersectional team competition. He has been recognized regionally by the USPTA as a three-time "35 and over" Player of the Year in 2010, 2011 and 2013. Peterson was also recognized by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation twice as one of Annapolis' Finest Forty Under Forty.
 
Towson will kick off the fall slate with a busy weekend, splitting its squad during the weekend of Sept. 15-17. The Tigers' five seniors will compete at the 2017 Bedford Cup Mid-Atlantic Division I Championships, hosted by the University of Maryland Sept. 15-17.
 
The Bedford Cup, which began in 2011 to highlight the top collegiate players in the state of Florida, extended to Maryland in 2016. The remaining players will host the annual Tiger Fall Classic Sept. 15-17. Last season, Towson welcomed four teams to the Towson Center Courts for the three-day tournament.