NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Vanderbilt women’s tennis team has announced the addition of Kelly Chen as an assistant coach.
“I am thrilled to have Kelly joining our staff this season. Her tremendous accolades as a student-athlete at Duke speak for themselves, and she is highly respected across the college tennis community,” head coach Aleke Tsoubanos said. “I have great admiration for the way Kelly competed and represented her alma mater in Durham. I know she will bring the same passion and work ethic to our program and be a huge asset to the continued success of our student-athletes.”
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.
“First off, I would like to thank Aleke and Vanderbilt for this amazing opportunity,” Chen said. “I am honored and excited to be joining a program that has rich history that I hope to be part of in the future. I am looking forward to working with and alongside a great group of student athletes and coaches. Go Dores!”
Chen earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in sociology. She brings her academic and athletic success to help the Dores heading into the next season.
