Montgomery County professor competing in 'Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions' Monday night

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Monday night on 'Jeopardy!,' our second local contestant will compete in the Tournament of Champions.

Last week, Ocean City, New Jersey's Cris Pannullo lost in an upset. Now, it's Melissa Klapper's turn.

The Merion Station, Montgomery County resident is a history professor and Director of Women's & Gender Studies at Rowan University.

She's a a former three time 'Jeopardy!' winner and says competing in the 'Tournament of Champions' has been a dream.

Klapper says she's been a longtime fan of the show and told me the biggest "pinch me" part of this experience was getting in the group chat with the other TOC contestants.

"It was fun," she says. "I was only there for a couple of days last time. This time, all of the contestants needed to be there for the full week, no matter when any of us might have gotten eliminated. We really bonded as a group. It was just lovely. What a wonderful group of people. I'm really honored to have been among them. Somebody brought in the statistic that more people have been to space that have competed in the 'Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions'."

Of the 27 chosen to compete, only nine will make it to quarterfinals.

Back in December, Action News surprised Klapper with the news that she was heading to the 'Tournament of Champions.'

Emotions were high!

Since then, Klapper has been brushing up on science and geography and stepping up her buzzer training.

"I was not fast enough last year, even though I managed to win three games anyway," she says. "I really wanted to get better at the buzzer. I did reaction time tests on my phone. My husband set up a remote control disco ball, and we would watch 'Jeopardy!' with the ball flashing the light and I would press on my fake buzzer. It was an old chalk holder from when I first started teaching."

Klapper laughed that this is first time her students at Rowan University think she's "cool."

You can watch Klapper compete in the 'Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions' Monday, March 4th at 7 p.m. on 6abc.