Laura Matthews

Laura Matthews

Laura Matthews is in her fourth year on the Forester coaching staff. She is in her second year as pitching coach after spending the 2009 and 2010 seasons serving as a hitting coach and working with the team's infielders.

Lake Forest posted a 55-50-1 overall record and 31-7 mark in Midwest Conference play during Matthews' first three years with the program.

All three of the Foresters' pitchers won at least four games in 2011 and combined to rank fifth in the MWC in earned run average. Under Matthews' direction, All-MWC South Division pitcher Kelly Chesnut finished fifth in the league in ERA and fourth in opponent batting average.

The team led the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, hits, runs batted in, doubles, triples, homes runs, total bases, and bases on balls during at least one of Matthews' two seasons as hitting coach. Forester batters and infielders also set or tied 14 school records during that span.

Matthews worked for Kemper Sports Management in 2008 and as a Sport Marketing Intern for the Nashville Predators in 2007 and Vanderbilt University in 2006. She was also an instructor for Worth Club K Softball Camps in 2005.

The four-year letter winner at the University of Dayton was an ESPN The Magazine Second Team Academic All-American and an Atlantic 10 Academic All-Conference honoree as a senior in 2008. She was named to the Atlantic 10 Commissioner's Honor Roll all four seasons and was a member of the Softball Leadership Team, Dean's List, and National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Honor's Program at Dayton.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Dayton in May of 2008.

Matthews also works at the College as Internship and Alumni Programs Coordinator in the Career Advancement Center.