Jessica Seelig-Failla - Assistant Coach - Men's Tennis Coaches

Jessica Seelig-Failla

Title:
Assistant Coach

Jessica Seelig-Failla joined the Liberty Men's Tennis coaching staff in July 2024 following one season working with the women's tennis program.

Seelig-Failla joined the Liberty women’s tennis team as an assistant coach in Aug. 2023. Seelig-Failla came to Liberty after finishing her collegiate career at Pepperdine, helping lead the program to their first ever NCAA Tournament Finals in 2021. She became the first player in program history to win a singles match in an NCAA Team Championships final. Seelig-Failla became an ITA All-American in singles winning her round of 32 match in the NCAA tournament without dropping a single game.

During her four years with the program (2018-21), Pepperdine won the WCC Conference title in each year she attended. Seelig-Failla excelled academically and was a two-time Pepperdine Scholar Athlete (2019, 2020). She received her undergraduate degree in International Studies Politics. Seelig-Failla also completed two masters programs through the law school and graduated Magna Cum Laude in Dispute Resolution (2020) and Legal Studies (2021).

In her final collegiate season, Seelig-Failla was an ITA All-American, and reached her career high individual ranking of No. 4 in the country (March 24, 2021). Seelig-Failla was named to the WCC All-Tournament Team after securing more match victories than any another player playing from the No. 1 singles position in the ITA National Indoor Championships.

Seelig-Failla was a two-time WCC Doubles Team of the Week selection (March 30, April 6 2021). In 2019, Seelig-Failla and partner Anastasia Iamachkine reached their best doubles ranking of No.9 in the country. Seelig-Failla’s most notable singles wins were triumphs over Gonzaga’s No 1. Sophia Whittle, Texas’ No 2. Anna Turati and UCLA’s No 5. Jada Hart.

Before Pepperdine, Seelig-Failla played at USC for two seasons (2015-17) and earned All-Pac 12 second-team honors in her sophomore campaign. In 2017, Seelig-Failla was ranked as high as No. 33 in the country in singles and qualified for the NCAA individual tournament. Seelig-Failla reached the second round of the NCAA Singles Championship in 2017. In 2016, she was ranked No. 13 in the country in doubles with Gabby Smith six victories at the ITA All-American Championships. In her final season at USC, Failla-Seelig and partner Rianna Valdes upset the No. 1 doubles team in Cal’s No. 28 pair of Maya Jansen and Maegan Manasse.

As a professional, Seelig-Failla has reached a career high professional singles ranking of No. 411 on the WTA tour. In doubles, she has won two professional titles (25k Tallin, Estonia (2021) and 15k Malaga, Spain (2023) to reach her highest ranking of No. 389. Seelig-Failla’s most notable wins on the singles professional tour are over No. 125 Laura Piggosi, No. 104 KImberly Birrel, No. 126 Alli Kick, No. 120 Emiliana Arango, and No. 110 Marina Ribera.

Seelig-Failla is the daughter of Greg Failla and Katrina Crawford; both of her parents played college and professional tennis. Greg Failla’s highest ranking was 210 ATP and Katrinas 450 WTA. She has three younger siblings; Joshua, Julia and Joel. Seelig-Failla came to Lynchburg with her husband, Kyle Seelig, who was hired as the Liberty men’s tennis assistant coach in 2023. Kyle came to Liberty after playing for Ohio State for six seasons (2015-20), helping the team to six straight Big 10 titles, a 2018 NCAA Championship Final Four, a 2019 ITA National Indoor title, and a team No. 1 ITA ranking.