Amidst the sleet and snow, collegiate tennis fired back up late last month with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend. The women have roared out of the gate, amassing a 9-1 record and ranking #3 nationally. The weather hasn’t been as kind to the men’s schedule, who sit at 5-2.

Women’s Tennis:

On the women’s side, the team returns the women game’s most famous face, senior Reese Brantmeier. Brantmeier won the women’s singles title last season, earning ACC Player of the Year recognition along the way. She’s the second Tar Heel on the women’s side to win the singles trophy, following Jaime Loebe in 2015. She’s also lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the NCAA with respect to prize money. Brantmeier won $ 49,000 in a US Open qualifier tournament, but the NCAA, which has athletes pulling down millions in NIL, still prohibits prize money in excess of $ 10,000. The case has been granted class-action status, and the trial should begin later this year.

So far this season, Brantmeier already has two ACC Player of the Week honors. Against #9 NC State and #1 Georgia, her 2-0 singles and 1-1 doubles result helped power UNC to two top 10 wins.

Junior Tatum Evans took home the ACC Player of the Week honors last week, going 3-0 in singles and 2-0 in doubles with freshman partner Anna Frey against Illinois and #2 Ohio State. Going back to week one, Oby Kajuru won Player of the Week while Alanis Hamilton, pairing with Brantmeier, earned ACC Doubles Team of the Week honors. All told, that’s five Tar Heels combining for six weekly honors in the season’s opening month.

While those names headline the UNC season so far, the roster features tremendous depth, including several former blue chip recruits. With wins already over #1 Georgia, #6 Oklahoma, #9 NC State, and #14 Virginia, expectations for this year’s squad run high.

Men’s Tennis

The men opened the season at the ITA Kickoff Weekend, losing 3-4 to Vanderbilt and then blanking Virginia Tech 4-0. Since then, UNC logged wins over Furman, UNC-Asheville, and UNC-Greensboro, while losing to Princeton.

The conference schedules promises to be daunting. Those thirteen matchups include #1 Virginia, #3 Wake Forest, #4 Stanford, #16 Clemson, and #20 Duke. Additionally, the men face will #25 Illinois in two weeks on the road.

The men’s roster features #84 Ian Mayew and #104 Roan Jones in singles and #89 Mayew/Kase Schinnerer in doubles. The remaining season schedule will present opportunity for other players to emerge in what looks to be a developmental year for the program.