Before she was named three-time Big East singles player of the week as a senior, before she set the record for most singles victories (16) in a single season since 2017, before she went down in the Creighton history books for becoming one of just five Bluejays to win 20 or more matches in the 2022-23 season, and even before she earned Most Valuable Player her freshman year, Malvika Shukla hated playing competitive tennis.
It was at age 11 when the Mumbai, India native started taking tennis seriously. Driven by her father’s persistence that she play a sport, Shukla spent many of her early years exploring everything from badminton, to swimming, to classical dancing. Although tennis ultimately became her primary focus, it wasn’t love at first sight.
“When I found tennis, [my dad] kind of made me stick with it, and he was the one who really pushed me into playing,” the senior said. “I actually hated competing when I started playing tennis. I really hated it. I just did it because I was like, ‘oh this is kind of fun’ — it’s a fun sport, but I didn’t want to pursue it, but he really, really encouraged me to play it, and I think over time I realized that I really do enjoy the sport and I do love competing.”
Even as she matured and her dedication to the sport grew, the Mumbai native never dreamed that there were any other options for pursuing tennis other than going pro.
“When I started playing it initially, the only thing you could really do with playing tennis was you could go pro,” Shukla said. “So I grew up thinking that was my dream with tennis.”
It wasn’t until the years 2016 to 2017 that the senior recalled discovering college tennis, an opportunity that opened one more door for the future.
“It was a new thing that happened … in India, where we found out that there’s a way for us to go and get a bachelor’s degree in the United States and also play tennis,” Shukla said.
It wasn’t the first time that the Mumbai native had traveled out of the country, so the possibility didn’t seem too foreign, if unknown. Young Shukla had traveled all over the world, to Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia and Kenya as a child, spending two weeks at a time in a hotel room while competing in International Tennis Federation (ITF) tournaments.
“I traveled internationally, and I was away from home, and I would go alone because it was just too expensive for me and a parent to stay in a hotel for two weeks,” the senior said. “So my dad would come with me for three days and get me settled and then he would leave because he had to come back [to India] and work … and then I would stay for two weeks at a stretch.”
Her early years of travel didn’t make the decision to pursue tennis in the United States any easier. After dismissing Creighton in the early days of college recruiting, a lack of communication from other coaches drew the Mumbai native back in the direction of Head Coach Tom Lilly, Jean Lilly and the Bluejay tennis program.
“I do remember even after I signed [in May of 2020], I felt great,” Shukla said. “[But] I remember just being across the world and never having visited Creighton, [and] I just felt uncertain at the time. I was like, ‘I don’t know if this is the right move.’”
Feelings of uncertainty lingered longer than Shuka anticipated. The fall of 2020, meant to mark Shukla’s entrance into the college tennis world, instead brought the world to a standstill in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The senior was stuck mulling her uncertainties into the fall semester, attending online classes for Creighton without ever setting foot on the campus that would soon become her home for the next four years.
At long last, in the spring of 2021, Shukla finally boarded a plane to Omaha. Upon her arrival, a whirlwind of change awaited the Mumbai native as she attempted to navigate not only college life but a drastically different culture than the one she had known her entire life.
“I experienced a lot of culture shock… [with] the way people have grown up so differently from me, and there’s nothing to connect us,” the senior said.
The simple distinction between calling 8th grade through 12th grade ‘high school,’ a common parlance in the United States, and ‘secondary school,’ the term used in Mumbai, created a divide for Shukla, making it difficult for her to connect with her peers.
“Experiences from the past, like the way people have grown up, the food we eat, the languages we speak and something as simple as even driving on the other side of the road [disconnected me],” the Mumbai native said.
Homesickness also hindered Shukla from fully enjoying her first and second years at Creighton.
“I came to college thinking I’d be away for four months and then go home for the summer because I came in the spring, but because of COVID, I was not able to go home, and I was here [in Omaha] for 11 months straight,” the senior said. “So that was a really, really hard part of coming here and finding friends, [and] finding people similar to me … ”
A brief respite from the overwhelming homesickness that Shukla faced came in the form of her tennis coach, Tom Lilly, and his wife, Jean Lilly, Creighton’s assistant coach. Jean Lilly, in particular, assumed a motherly role throughout Shukla’s time at Creighton.
“Tom and Jean were a big part of [helping with my homesickness] because Jean would check on me a lot because obviously it’s not easy as a freshman,” Shukla said. “I was 18 and 19 years old, so I feel like it was really hard at that time … [Jean] was like a mother to me. She would always check on me and make sure I was doing okay. She would always tell me, to make me feel better, that ‘I wish I could bring your family here because I know that’s what you need right now’, but I just had to push through that.”
While engulfed in the struggle to find her footing at Creighton, Shukla’s impact on the Bluejays’ tennis team was still recognized from the moment she stepped on Hanscom Courts.
Even though Tom Lilly had only seen her talent on one short video before recruiting Shukla, the Bluejay coach took a leap of faith on the Mumbai native, placing his trust in her abilities on the court. Just as Lilly foresaw, Shukla’s impact on the Bluejays’ tennis team was undeniable.
“They always gave me a chance and I think that’s something that I’m really thankful for,” Shukla said of the Lilly family. “Coming in in the spring, [Tom and Jean] had never seen me play, and so they had to put me in number seven, which means that … I didn’t hit a ball. So to go from that to where I am right now, I think it’s just because they gave me the opportunity. They gave me a chance, and they really trusted me, even if I didn’t trust myself every time.”
“She’s always been resilient on the court,” Tom Lilly said of Shukla. “It’s something where as a coach you never have to worry about her because we always know she’s going to compete … she’ll go down as one of the greatest [Creighton] women’s tennis players of all time.”
Although Shukla was extremely successful competing on the tennis court throughout her first two years, it wasn’t until the latter part of her college career that Shukla realized that she had found a home in Omaha.
“When you find the right people, you can associate [them] with a place and call it home,” the Mumbai native said. “I think that came around first semester junior year when I really started to get comfortable with the environment. It came in my second half of college, but I’m glad it came [because] I was worried it would never [come].”
Forging meaningful connections with her teammates was instrumental in Shukla’s journey to finding a sense of home in Omaha.
“They’re not just teammates, and that’s what is really different [from] my past … they’re long-lasting friendships that I’ll have for the rest of my life,” Shukla said. “They have always been there for me. It’s so nice to know that I’m not the only one fighting for the match — there’s people who care about me and that support me all the time, even when I’m playing on days I’m not feeling my best. I know they’re always there for me.”
After four years of accolades, experiences and lasting memories, the senior reflected on how much she would cherish being a student athlete at Creighton for all four years. She said she will forever value the ups and the downs, because if she has learned one thing from being a Bluejay, it is that college goes fast, and there are only so many years to be a student-athlete.
“I’m so glad I chose to come here,” the senior reflected at her Senior Day celebration in front of Bluejay fans, her teammates and her coaches, tears shining in her eyes. “Even though I knew nothing about it, I would do it again.”