Kelly Chen

Assistant Coach

The 2023-24 season is Kelly Chen’s first as assistant coach on the Vanderbilt women’s tennis staff.

Chen, a Cerritos, California, native, joins the Commodores after serving as an assistant coach at Furman. Chen helped lead Furman to an undefeated regular season record in conference play and nonconference wins over Yale and Cal State Fullerton. In this year’s Southern Conference championship, Furman advanced to the championship match before falling to East Tennessee State University. Before her time as a Paladin, Chen served as a volunteer assistant coach at Northwestern.

She competed at Duke from 2018 to 2022 and was a five-time ITA All-American. Additionally, she earned ACC Rookie of the Year and qualified for the NCAA singles championship in 2018, 2019 and 2021. During her time as a Blue Devil, Chen was named caption, ranked as high as fifth nationally in singles, and was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team in 2022.

Chen earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in sociology.