By: Andrew Altman
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – The Women’s Tennis team kicks off an eight-game road trip to start their spring schedule this weekend. This means that tennis players will be missing a lot of classes during this long road trip. The team will be embarking on a trip that will take them to five different states in the next 25 days.
Senior tennis player Kelly Keller said that while playing on the road and traveling is fun, it isn’t easy to miss class.
“We travel a lot on Wednesdays and Thursdays so if you have classes on those days you just don’t go to a majority of those classes. So, you miss a lot of quizzes and attendance points and stuff like that but you sort of just have to deal with it.”
Keller said that even when the team is on the road, they try and get as much schoolwork done as they can. But it is not nearly enough time to get everything done and stay up to date.
“You don’t get a lot done so we have to just do it after dinner or usually on Saturdays we do a lot of work and stuff, but it is really hard on match days and travel days. But we do try to get most of it done before so we don’t have to deal with it.”
Regardless of all of the stress that comes with being a student-athlete, Keller said that she is still very excited about the upcoming spring season.
“I’m excited to play more matches in the sec because like i said i think we are going to do really well. We have a really good team this year.”
However, in her fourth year at the University of Arkansas, her sights are set on not just a great spring season, but a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
“We definitely want to make the tournament, but more than that we want to make the sweet sixteen and we want to be top five in the sec, which are all things that i think are supper attainable.”
After this year, Keller will come back for her 5th year in pursuit of a master’s degree in marketing. Following her 2024 graduation, she hopes to continue her tennis career in the pros. But for now, Keller and the Lady Razorbacks look to keep their five-game win streak in tact as they travel to Oklahoma on Friday for a showdown with the Oklahoma Sooners.