Through her character and mature performance as a first-year player for the North Carolina field hockey team, Ashley Sessa has proven that she is one of a kind.
“You can always fall back on her and trust her with everything,” teammate Kennedy Cliggett said. “I’m grateful to get to know her on and off the field.”
Field hockey has been embedded in Sessa’s identity since she was four years old. After begging her mother to allow her to play football alongside her brother, she was enrolled in a YMCA field hockey program. Her life-long experience is evident in her countless accolades and her participation in competitions around the globe, playing in Chile, South Africa and Austria.
This year, she has emerged as one of the young stars for North Carolina, a team that is looking to capture its fourth national title in five years.
Sessa’s love for competition is clear, and has been evident since a young age. She fondly remembers 100-yard dashes with her brother on family beach vacations and strength competitions as children.
“We were so competitive growing up,” Sessa said. “He was six years older, but he never let me win.”
Apart from being the youngest sibling, Sessa is also one of the youngest members of the Tar Heel team. Not only is she a first-year, but she is a young first-year, turning 18 this June.
“It has really helped me being one of the youngest on the team, and normally, one of the smallest,” Sessa said. “That has just developed me as a player to know my confidence and know what I can do on the field.”
Before coming to UNC, she was the 2022 Pennsylvania All-State Player of the Year and a three-time high school All-American. She has been a member of the WC Eagles, which UNC head coach Karen Shelton calls the best field hockey club in the country, since she was 8 years old. The club is also the former home of many North Carolina players, including Erin Matson, Kelly Smith and Sessa’s childhood friend Cliggett.
