Imagine playing in a heated tennis match, anticipating a serve from your opponent. You drop into your athletic position, racket across your body, bouncing back and forth on the balls of your feet. You stare at your opponent, bouncing the ball in preparation for her serve. Then a car passes by blasting the “Cupid Shuffle.” As the server tosses the ball to begin her serve, you start dipping your shoulders and adjusting your bounce to the lyrics, “To the right, to the right.” You return the serve and win the point. You weren’t aware you were dancing, and only hear about it after the match. For Kelsey Matthews, a University of Tampa tennis player, this was once a reality.
“Kelsey leads the wobble and Harlem Shake for us at practice too,” said women’s tennis Head Coach Al Dufaux. “With the team’s practice music was playing during the interview, she couldn’t help but move to the beat even while answering questions despite being ‘nervous’”.
Dancing mid-match may seem unorthodox, but as a sophomore transfer with a 12-3 record playing for a top-15 Division II program, Matthews, 19, is all business on the court. On the contrary, Matthews is a competitor in all senses of the word.
She started tennis at age seven but placed soccer and basketball first. She always continued tennis though and gave up soccer for tennis in high school with basketball still her priority. In high school, she won numerous awards in tennis and basketball including being named First-Team All-State in tennis by the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association.
Arguably even more impressive is how her competitive nature extends off the court. As an entrepreneurship major at UT, Matthews and doubles partner, freshman Lindsay Nochowicz, entered and won the CREATE (Creating Real Entrepreneurial Actions through Education) competition for her [Matthews] and her mom’s website idea, College Bids Pass it On.
The website is in its fruition and will be launched mid-April. She hopes advertising loyalties will be collected soon after and Matthews’ mom, Karen, has even thought up an advertising strategy for UT: decking her daughter’s car out with ads. “Yup, I’m going to be that girl driving around campus with advertising on my car,” laughed Matthews.
Her mom now resides in Florida after moving from Ohio and her Dad, Mark, lives back in Ohio with her older brother, Nathan. Matthews describes the divorce which happened in her eighth grade year as one of the hardest points in her life. She transferred to an all-girls academy during her freshman year as a result. “It was one of those points where everything was going wrong so I needed to change something,” she said.
She later transferred back to her old school where she amassed the majority of her awards and came to accept the divorce. “I learned it was better for the both of them,” Matthews said. She remains close with both her dad and brother who both have heavily influenced her tennis career. Her brother, 24, played tennis competitively and her dad teaches tennis professionally. Her earliest tennis memories are of her dad taking her to the court to volley.
Matthews describes her decision to pick UT after a year at the University of Indianapolis as similarly tough as her high school transfer. “I had to leave my brother and Dad behind,” she said adding, “Leaving the girls [teammates] behind was hard too.” But with her mom’s impending move to Florida looming, her visit to UT sealed the deal. “Yeah just like every other kid, as soon as I visited [UT] my mind was made up,” she said laughing.
Since the transfer, she has fully adapted and immersed herself into her team and the UT community. “These girls have almost become my sisters,” said Matthews on her teammates. Her and her doubles partner, Nochowicz, have developed an undeniable chemistry echoed by their 13-3 record. Even during the interview, as her partner walked over, the duo broke out in laughter.
“I have never been a confident doubles player and never really had a constant partner until now,” said Nochowicz. “[Now] I know who my partner is going to be every match and I feel more confident in doubles, and it helps that Kelsey is really good and our styles complement each other.”
“Playing as a doubles team requires synergy, and that’s something that they have and coaches look for,” added coach DuFaux.
The Spartans have achieved the programs highest ever ranking at midseason at No. 15. Even more impressive is the fact that their conference, the Sunshine State Conference, has no team ranked lower than No. 20 in the nation.
With two years left in her career in UT, Matthews denies a future in tennis past college. “I don’t know,” Matthews said laughing, “I’ll probably just be one of those USDA moms cheering for my kids.”
Drew Wycoff can be reached at dwycoff@spartans.ut.edu.