Robert Kelly, the lone senior on the North Carolina men’s tennis team, stepped onto the light blue, white and green courts that the Tar Heels call home. He took a deep breath, exhaled and shook his arms to loosen himself up.
Kelly swayed side to side on Court Three — his final regular-season home battle ahead of him — trying to remember that this isn't the end.
“Time flies,” Kelly said. “It kind of all hits you at once. I’m a little sad, but we have a lot more matches to play. Hopefully I can finish this thing off right.”
The No. 8 North Carolina men’s tennis team (18-4, 9-1 ACC) would honor Kelly on Senior Day exactly the way it wanted to — with a 4-0 win against Clemson. Kelly ended his playing days in the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center as a consistent Court Three competitor, and a critical half of the top-ranked doubles team in the country.
His pregame rituals, his on-court transitions from powerful serves to scrappy volleys — it was all business by this point. Or at least, that is what it had been for most of his career.
But a lot has changed for Kelly since he first arrived at UNC. In these past two seasons, the senior has rediscovered his love for the sport of tennis — and through it all, learned that there is more to life than the sport itself.
Two seasons ago, Kelly and the rest of the men's tennis team were introduced to Mick Macholl, a 5-year-old boy who died of neuroblastoma last year. The team built a relationship with the child — who signed with the team in November 2016 — and the rest of the Macholl family.
The relationship endures to this day.
“I miss him,” Kelly said last January. “And I hope he is looking down on us. I hope we’re making him proud.”