Suburban students on 'Dancing with the Stars'

Two suburban college students will mambo in front of 20 million people tonight on "Dancing With the Stars," which starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday on ABC 7.

Tracy Matz, a 21-year-old from Des Plaines, and Sean Lyons, a 19-year-old from Naperville, are among the members of Purdue University's Latin and Ballroom Dance Team who will compete in the top-rated show's first amateur college dance competition.

Their 90-second, live performance tonight will be against the University of California-San Diego's dance team.

If Purdue's team is chosen as the winner, they advance to the May 25 finals with a new routine.

Matz, a junior majoring in visual communications and design, has been a dancer since she was 4 years old and was on the dance team at Elk Grove High School, said her mother, Mary Matz.

"She's so excited," Mary Matz said Monday, before catching a flight to California to watch the performance. "They didn't have a lot of notice ... so they've been practicing like crazy."

Matz joked that she's going to hold her breath throughout her daughter's 90-second routine.

"Someone's going to have to pinch me or pick me up off the floor," she said, laughing. "It's such an amazing opportunity."

At Sterba's Dance Sport in Naperville, the phone has been ringing incessantly with calls about the studio's new star alumnus, Lyons.

"It's getting so crazy because the news is spreading with former students calling and saying 'Did you hear?'" said instructor Heather Bejda.

Lyons is a 2009 graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School and was a student for five years at Sterba's. Now a Purdue freshman, his team was chosen after sending an audition tape to the show.

He said he's thrilled, but can't fully grasp the experience yet.

"It's not really that real yet and I don't think it will be that way until I'm on the stage," Lyons said.

Last week the team learned they were chosen to perform and Monday they fly to Los Angeles to prepare for the live show. Lyons said recent rehearsals have been intense, lasting up to five hours and cutting sleep hours short.

Tom Sterba, owner of Sterba's and Lyon's first instructor, said his former student has been calling him almost daily with questions about how to perfect the performance.

"I told him to take the experience in and just enjoy it," Sterba said.

Of course, Lyons won't be the only Naperville native on the show, as Olympic figure skating gold medalist Evan Lysacek is still in the competition. Lyons said he hopes for a chance to meet the skater.

And as one of the youngest members competing on his team, he also hopes this is just the start of good things to come.

"If this is my freshman year, I just wonder what could come in the future," he said.

If Purdue triumphs in its semifinal competition, the team will move to the finals on May 25 with a new routine.