Creighton University Women's Tennis

The 2025-26 season marks Tom Lilly's 29th full season at the helm of Creighton’s women’s tennis program. Lilly has been a part of Bluejay tennis for 36 years. He spent five years as a player, redshirting one season and later served three years as an assistant coach for both the men's and women's teams. He took over as interim head coach in the spring of 1997. Lilly was later named head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams at the end of that season. Lilly served 26.5 years as the Bluejay head coach before stepping down on June 9, 2023. He owned a program-record 241 victories as the Bluejay men's head coach. In total, Lilly owns 553 wins (including 312 women's victories), which ranks fourth in the history in Creighton Athletics in all sports. Lilly picked up his 500th career triumph when the Creighton women beat Air Force on Jan. 28, 2023. In 2022-23, Lilly lead the Bluejays women's tennis team to a 17-8 overall record, the team's best record since 1993 when the team also finished with a 17 wins. CU earned earned the No. 3 seed at the BIG EAST Championships Presented by JEEP, where the Bluejays advanced to the finals for the first time in program history after earning a heroic 4-3 come-from-behind win over DePaul in the semifinals. Malvika Shukla earned First Team All-BIG EAST honors while Valerie Negin claimed Second Team All-BIG EAST honors. Tom and Jean Lilly were also named the BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year, marking the first time in league history a tennis coach

Jean Lilly is currently in her 26th full season as an assistant of the Creighton women’s tennis program. Lilly has been a part of Bluejay tennis for 30 years. She spent four years as a player at Creighton before becoming an assistant coach. Since joining the BIG EAST in 2014, Lilly has helped the Bluejays post a 141-107-1 record, while guiding the Bluejays to six BIG EAST Tournament Quarterfinal appearances, as well as the championship match of the BIG EAST Tournament in 2023. Lilly was instrumental in the development of BIG EAST Freshman of the Year Valerie Negin and All-BIG EAST First Team Kate Krueger, while helping guide the Bluejays to a 12-8 record in the spring of 2022. The former Bluejay standout helped the women's team to an 10-6 record during the spring of 2021. Creighton recorded five wins at home, including a 5-2 win against BIG EAST foe, Marquette. Lilly helped guide the 2020 Bluejays to an 11-4 mark, including a 6-0 record at home, before the season ended on March 12 because of the COVID-19 virus. Jean contributed to Ashley Ishimura's second consecutive All-BIG EAST honor in 2019 and helped lead the women to a 9-13 record. The team claimed an Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) All-Academic Team award, while eight individuals also claimed ITA Scholar-Athlete status. She helped lead the women's program to a 15-8 record during the 2018 spring season, the team's best record since 1993 when the team finished 17-9. Ishimura earned a spot on the All-BIG EAST Seco