MSRA Spotlight on Martha Kelly

By Corey Modeste

Martha grew up just outside of Philadelphia and picked up a racquet for the first time as a 14 year-old at Episcopal Academy. What started out as a desire simply to confirm her choice for a winter sport turned into a competitive outlet when she became more active in junior squash competition a few years later. The resources and squash base at Episcopal Academy and in Philadelphia in general were great (Episcopal was generally the strongest team in the Philadelphia-area scholastic leagues), and Martha also had the benefit of having her equally-talented big sister Ruth on her high school team. Unfortunately, Martha never had the opportunity to play at Episcopal's state of the art facility (pictured), which was completed in 2008.


Martha was recruited to play at Princeton and saw her perspective on the game change slightly. She was no less competitive (more so, in fact), but the focus was to train and grow as a team rather than garner individual results. Even if her position in Princeton 's top 10 line-up was more tenuous as a senior than when she started as a freshman, improving as a team and the team's national championship win in 2007 were more important. College squash was not without its individual victories, however. While older sister Ruth had the edge when they were juniors, Martha reports being satisfied with a head to head victory when she faced Ruth once in college.



The team drive is still there. Martha was an active player in the women's 5.0 league and in the Grand and Hyder tournaments last year, and has joined a stacked University Club women's 5.0 team this year. While Martha did not go as far as promising a University Club team victory this season, she said that last year's women's 5.0 championship Harvard team (and sister Ruth on the rival Yale Club women's team) should feel ‘very scared'.

Martha lives in Manhattan and is an investment banking analyst at boutique Hill Street Capital.