Former Linfield University women's tennis great Ella Riddle has been promoted to head coach, director of athletics Garry Killgore announced on Wednesday. Killgore said Riddle will also provide support to the overall athletic department as a Strength & Conditioning and Sport Performance coach.
 
"Ella is an excellent fit for our women's tennis program right now due to her 'street cred' as a player," said Killgore. "I love the way she competes and brings out the best in those around her. I believe she will do an excellent job of not only maintaining our high level of success in women's tennis, but I can easily see her raising the bar with the program."
 
Riddle served as an assistant women's tennis coach at Linfield during the coronavirus-shortened 2019-20 season. She assumes leadership of the program from her former coach, Lisa Macy-Baker, who stepped down in July after leading the Wildcats to three consecutive Northwest Conference championships.
 
After completing a bachelor's degree in exercise science at Linfield in 2018, Riddle spent one year working in England as assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Leeds Rhinos Women's Professional Netball team and as head strength and conditioning coach for the Leeds Beckett Women's Tennis team. While in England, she completed a master's degree in strength and conditioning with an emphasis on female athletes.
 
"I know first-hand about Ella's ability to understand and implement high-level sport performance programs," said Killgore, who was one of Riddle's exercise science professors during her time at Linfield. "She's taken those undergraduate experiences to the next level by recently completing her master's degree in the strength and conditioning/sport performance area. She will be an excellent leader, as well as, sport performance teammate in this much-needed area for all of athletics."
 
Riddle was a highly decorated tennis player at Linfield, earning Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America recognition twice in singles and a third time in doubles. She was a two-time NWC Player of the Year and earned first team NWC all-star recognition in each of her four seasons. During her career, the ITA also named Riddle as that organization's West Region Freshman and West Region Senior Player of the Year.
 
As Linfield team captain, she was the top player on back-to-back NWC championship clubs and received Linfield's Female Student-Athlete of the Year award as a senior.
 
In her dual role as Strength & Conditioning and Sport Performance coach, Riddle will collaborate with current Strength & Conditioning program leader Phil Rombach. Together, they'll team with Killgore, Health and Human Performance professor Dr. Cisco Reyes, Linfield's athletic trainers, and associate director of athletics Doug Hire on developing a comprehensive long-term plan that "provides a high-quality sports medicine/sport performance program for all Linfield athletes that's thoroughly based in exercise and sport science."
 
Riddle begins her new position September 28.