Tatjana Matthews enters her third season as the head coach for the South Carolina State University women's softball.
Matthews comes to SC State from Allen University where she was the head softball coach, Assistant Director of Athletics/SWA and adjunct professor in the criminal justice department. While at AU, Matthews made an immediate impact increasing wins from four (4) to 16 in a single season.
Prior to Allen, Matthews served as head coach at Mississippi University for Women “The W,” a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). Matthews finished with a 21-19 record in the program first year of existence and qualified for the USCAA World Series finishing fifth.
While there she coached two USCAA All-Americans, including Katlyn Duke, 10 All-Academic All-Americans, as well as Cara Hopper a member of the USCAA All-World Series team.
Before joining “The W” (Mississippi University for Women), Matthews spent five years at Columbia College on the softball coaching staff, she was named head coach in 2016. Under the direction of Matthews, Columbia College posted their first winning season in school history and was a part of three winning seasons since 2012.
During her collegiate athletic playing career at Francis Marion University, she served as a member of the FMU softball team, where she was named to the Peach Belt Academic and All-American Academic team. She currently holds the record for most RBI’s in a season, career RBI, fielding percentage, games started, consecutive games started and ranks among the top 10 in doubles.
After graduating from Francis Marion with a bachelor's degree of science in sociology, she transferred to Charleston Southern to complete her final year of eligibility. At CSU she was named to the Scholar Athlete Team, Who's Who 2009 and 4.0 Buc Athlete Club and earned Master of Science in Criminal Justice.
The former Tatjana Slawson is married to Elise Matthews and they have two sons, Tucker (8) and Oliver (6) and reside in Columbia, SC.
