Stellar senior class adds one more win on UNC women's tennis senior day

Fans stood in the bleachers at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center outdoor courts on Sunday, donning white and Carolina Blue T-shirts in support of the three seniors on the North Carolina women’s tennis team.

The shirts have become a tradition to engage the crowd on senior day.

This year’s shirts featured three accomplished players — Ashley Dai, Whitney Kay and Kate Vialle — who added a 6-1 win against Boston College as a small footnote to a lengthy list of achievements on Sunday.

This senior class is more accomplished than any other in program history. In their four years, UNC has gone 48-3 in the ACC, won at least a share of the ACC regular season title four times, gone to the NCAA Championships three times and won two Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor National Team Championships.

“When has that happened?” Coach Brian Kalbas asked rhetorically. “When has a senior class had that?”

This year, the Tar Heels have clinched a tie for the ACC regular season championship and will have a chance to win it outright if they win the last two matches of the season.

But the seniors’ play on Sunday brought them one match closer.

Dai won her doubles match with teammate Chloe Ouellet-Pizer 6-1, and won her singles match handily 6-2, 6-1. Kay and her partner Hayley Carter won doubles 6-4, and won singles 6-4, 6-1. Vialle, who has been battling injury, lost her first singles set 7-5 before being unable to finish play in the second set.

“It’s a special day for us, and I just wanted to go out and enjoy the moment and just have fun,” Dai said. “... Being able to play well too was just the cherry on top.”

Although the tennis careers of the three Tar Heel seniors will be drawing to a close soon, they know the team will be in good hands next year.

“It will be sad for us seniors to leave, but we are leaving (the program) with a lot of talented underclassmen,” Kay said. “Hayley (Carter) will be a senior, and it will be in good hands.”

One of the instances inspiring the seniors’ confidence came on Friday at Virginia Tech.

UNC found itself tied in a thriller in Blacksburg, Va., but first-year Ouellet-Pizer sealed a 4-3 win with a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-5 victory, keeping the team perfect in the ACC this year.

Kalbas said the seniors’ presence will be sorely missed.

“When you look at what they have accomplished, individually on and off the court, they have just been incredible leaders for us,” he said.

“They are all impact players for us in so many ways.”

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