LA JOLLA, Calif. – The more she talks about her teams, the more you can tell how much she loves both distinct worlds. The captain of both the UC San Diego women's tennis team and Sitaare, a competitive South Asian a cappella team, Shweta Kumar has grown into her leadership roles over the last four years.
 
And as surprising as it may seem that one person could pull off such time-consuming roles while also completing a degree in Data Science and landing a consulting job, her success in both spheres is something she has more than prepared herself for over the years.
 
"I've always really liked competition, and the competitive environment of sports was something that I really wanted to continue in college," says Shweta. "I started playing tennis when I was 10 years old and since I started, I had a goal of playing competitively in college, just because I really liked the environment of competing with the team and traveling with the team and wanted to experience that part of college. I've been working towards that goal since I started."
 
But even with her goal of competing in tennis at the collegiate level, Shweta came to UC San Diego looking for an outlet for her competitive spirit and love of singing as well, despite the time commitments both pursuits present.
 
"I knew that I wanted to continue singing in a college a cappella environment, so when I came to UCSD I was learning more about all of the a cappella groups and Sitaare seemed like the best fit for me because it felt like a good place for me to stay connected to my culture," says Shweta. "I've learned classical Indian music for basically my whole life, so it was exciting for me to see that being translated into the college a cappella that I wanted to do."
 
The cultural connection Sitaare provided differed from her experiences singing in high school, which centered around her school choir, with her classical Indian signing training coming outside of school. And with Sitaare, Shweta found both the team and community aspects she sought right away, along with success on stage.
 
"We went to USC, and competed in a competition called Mehfil, and that was really memorable for me because it was a cool first competition experience and it went well too," remembers Kumar. "It was my freshman year when we went to my first competition on the team, we won first place and I also won the best female soloist award, so it was a really cool trip for me."
 

After competing with Sitaare in her first year at UC San Diego, Shweta rose to become a music director in her second year, her first leadership position with the team. In this role, she wrote the music that the team would perform at competitions, besides continuing to sing herself.

 

Then, she became the team's captain.
 
But even while she was winning awards with her Sitaare teammates, she continued to find success on the tennis court while carving out a role on the women's tennis team. And as was the case with Sitaare, Shweta found immediate success.
 
"My freshman year we went to Northern California played UC Davis and a couple of other schools and that was really memorable, because we swept every match and also had a really good win against UC Davis," recalls Kumar. "Being able to be a part of that where we were able to clinch a win against a top school was really cool, and that was before we even went D1 too, so it was cool to beat our future competitor."
 
Shweta has found that the two seemingly disparate spaces of athletics and a cappella really have complemented one another within her life, especially as she has stepped into leadership roles within both.
 

 
"I feel like sometimes when things arise that I have to do deal with as a captain on tennis I sometimes see it translate also into what I have to do on my a cappella team as well," says Shweta. "Essentially, the main thing for both is to get people together under a common goal, and to deal with hardships you might face is actually quite similar between singing and a sports team."
 

And while both tennis and a cappella can present difficulties for her to manage, she feels they are each indispensable creative and competitive outlets in their own ways.
 
"It's really funny actually because whenever I'm on the court and I get very nervous or very anxious during a point, my coach will say "Shweta sing," because she knows that singing is something that really relaxes me," says Shweta. "In singing, I really have that competitive spirit where I want our team to perform its best when we go anywhere, so its cool I can translate what keeps me happy on both teams into each other, but they are also just different outlets to really let myself go and forget about the stresses of school, or jobs and the future."
 
Thinking about the future isn't completely off her radar though, no matter how much tennis and singing she is doing. In fact, those two elements of her identity are the only things she is still trying to incorporate into her future plans.
 
"I definitely want to keep tennis and singing in my life, I still haven't figured out how, but I know that's something I'm going to be looking towards," says Shweta. "I've talked to a lot of Triton Alumni and they talk about how once you graduate you find a lot of community in the things you love. They talk about how you meet people through your love for sports, their love for fitness or whatever hobbies they might have besides sports, and I think that's definitely a way for me to stay connected to the things I'm passionate about and also meet new people in the next stage of life."
 
And with what she's done so far, it'd be a safe bet that she'll find a way to make those connections.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.