UNC Women's Tennis 2026-2027

[3397char]

With the graduation of ITA #2 Reece Brantmeier and ITA #7 Oby Ange Kajuru at the one and two spots, UNC looks to be in rebuilding mode for the 2026-2027 season.

For the first time in the portal era, UNC has lost an undergraduate transfer: 10.14 UTR Claire Hill moves on to Wake Forest. She was our #6 in the fall prior to the arrival of Frey and Zampardo.

Assuming that holds as our only transfer out, UNC returns the rest of their roster, so there is a solid foundation that keeps the floor comfortably high on paper. Where is the ceiling? That will depend largely on UNC's incoming freshman class.

UNC currently has a roster of 12, two over the roster limit. So the assumption is that there are a couple of walk-ons still on the team who grandfather in as roster exceptions until they graduate. If not, there will be more attrition. It also means that transfers in are pretty unlikely. edit: well, forget what I said, we landed aTm's Nicole Khirin in the portal; see below.

Here is the starting line-up using returning players only, based solely on their most common position last season.

Returning Players

Position	Player	Year	2025-26 Position	ITA Rank	UTR	Career_Indiv_Accolades
1	Tatum Evans	4th	11-2 at #3 17-3 in Duals	#43	10.80	2nd Team All-ACC
2	Maddie Zampardo	4th	6-0 at #5 10-1 in duals	UR	10.45
3	Anna Frey	2nd	5-4 at #4 5-0 at #5 4-0 at #6 16-4 in duals	UR	10.53
4	Alanis Hamiltion	3rd	3-4 at #4 6-5 in duals	UR, #4 in Dbls	10.45	NCAA A-A Doubles 2x 1stTeam All-ACC Doubles
5	Thea Rabman	4th	10-3 at #6 17-4 in duals	UR	10.21 (10.80 start of last season)	2024 Singles & Doubles NCAA A-A 2024-25 NCAA A-A 2025 2nd Team All-ACC
6	Mary Grace Reynard	3rd	3-0 at #6 3-0 in duals	UR	9.XX

• Doubles specialist Susana Matlby also returns; she paired with Kajuru last year as a part of the ITA #10 doubles team. 2nd Team All-ACC in doubles, NCAA All-American in doubles

Incoming 2026 Transfers:

Position	Player	Year	Previous	2024-25 Position	ITA Rank	UTR	Career_Indiv_Accolades
1	Nicole Khirin	5th	aTm, TX	32-8 at #2 20-5 in Duals	#11 (2025)	11.19 (2025)	Injured 2025-26 season 2025 NCAA A-A 2024 SEC 1st Team 2024 NCAA All Tourney Team singles & doubles 2023 Big12 POY, ROY

Incoming 2026 Freshmen:

Player	Year	TRN US recruit Rankings	US RPI Rank	UTR	Accolades
Alexis Nguyen	1st	TRN #1	#2	10.40	2025 USTA Jr Champ
Avery Nguyen	1st	TRN #4	#29	9.xx	2025 USTA Jr 3rd
Ishika Ashar	1st	TRN #25	#72	9.xx	silver at J300 Barranquilla
Aya Manning*	1st	TRN #31	UR, #4 in Dbls	9.xx	3x Runner-up at USTA Hard Court Nationals Doubles

*Note that Aya Manning has posted on her page photos of her signing but UNC did not post a "signed" graphic on the official Instagram.

2027 Commitments:

Player	Year	TRN US recruit Rankings	US RPI Rank	UTR	Accolades
Paige Wygodzki	2027	TRN #7	#4	10.xx	2nd Team All-ACC

3x National Coach of the Year Brian Kalbas returns for his 24th year at the helm. He is the winningest active coach in the country, 2nd all-time with 824 wins. He needs 22 wins to tie the all-time record at 846

UNC 2025-26 Stats
UNC's UTR Page

The 2025-26 Women's Tennis thread

 

[BoomerHeel]

I did not realize Zampardo had a year left. That‘s good.

 

[TAHeel]

There were a few whispers I heard that Frey was being encouraged to take a hand at the pro scene, will have to see how that develops.

 

[Jriv23]

She is not ready IMO. She needs at least another year. She was having a meltdown at one point during this half of the season. I think Brian might have to rethink his recruiting philosophy some. Debo had to do the same this past year for Clemson football about bringing transfers in. I think Brian night have to go across the pond to bring in a few European players. I know he does not like to do this but in order to maintain the standard he has set for our women's tennis program, he might have too which will help our program stay relevant. Go Heels!

 

[3397char]

There were a few whispers I heard that Frey was being encouraged to take a hand at the pro scene, will have to see how that develops.

Hopefully this post is indication she plans to return:

 

[3397char]

I did not realize Zampardo had a year left. That‘s good.

Two years left if the 5 to play 5 rules is codified.

 

[Jriv23]

That is wonderful news. Go Heels!

 

[3397char]

The ITA 2025-26 All-Americans were announced today:

singles:
Brantmeier
Kajuru

Doubles:
Brantmeier/Hamilton
Kajuru/Maltby

2026 ITA Division I Women's Tennis All-Americans

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association celebrates the 2026 ITA Division I Women's All-American student-athletes and their achievements.

wearecollegetennis.com

 

[3397char]

Reese already winning as an alumnus:
(W35 level event)



edit: she wins singles as well:

 

[3397char]

 

[3397char]

 

[oldwell]

Any word on transfers in?

 

[3397char]

Any word on transfers in?

We have 9 women on the UNC tennis team with eligibility remaining. We have 4 recruits listed in the OP in this thread who in theory arrive this season. 3 of those were officially listed as signed in the recruiting class posted by UNC media and the official site article here.

Aya Manning was not officially posted. Perhaps an oversight, or perhaps her offer was delayed, is still contingent on availability, or she is a grayshirt to arrive in the spring or the fall of 2027? I do not know. But she did have a signing ceremony at her high school she posted here. And she is followed by UNC tennis and pretty much the entire UNC team commented on her signing post i linked. so this seems fully legit. I think her post was well after our official announcements, so maybe she is just a late add to the class.

But that is either 12 or 13 women. The roster cap is 10. That leaves two possibilities: we already knew someone(s) is/were transferring out or there are player(s) on this roster who has/have always been walk-ons and they are grandfathered in as roster exceptions until they graduate.

My guess is that is is more of the latter. Tennis has in the past been a "head-count" sport by NCAA parlance. That means the previous limit of 8 scholarships could only go for full rides. It was not an "equivalency" sport where one scholarship could be divided among multiple players. So as recently as last year when we had that scholarship limit of 8, but a roster of 11, that meant that at least 3 women on our team were not on scholarship. I seriously doubt it was Reese Brantmeier, our best player. Doubtful it was Kajuru either, a pretty highly touted transfer. So perhaps those three are still on the roster? Perhaps we can stay at 13?

But it seems pretty likely it was not more than 3. I am pretty sure that UNC had all 8 potential women's scholarships funded prior to the NCAA v House settlement. 13 seems like it is a pretty hard limit.

All of this is to say, based on the series of assumptions in this post, there is likely no way that our roster will be more that 13. So I am going to hypothesize that absent someone transferring out, or quitting tennis completely who was previously on scholarship, we currently appear to have zero room for transfers. UNC has never had an undergrad player transfer out of this program in the entire portal era, and so far, no announcements I know of. So that too seems unlikely.

So I think we are rolling with our returning players, hoping for continued growth and development, and putting a lot of hope into our stellar recruiting class of domestic talent. I have no inside info, just doing the math with some assumptions and deductive reasoning. .

If you want to follow tennis recruiting and transfers, check out parsabombs and tennisrecruiting.net.

 

[UNCH]

They don't have room for transfers.
Alexis Nguyen
Avery Nguyen
Tatum Evans
Alana Boyce
Susanna Maltby
Anna Frey
Mary Rennard
Thea Rabman
Ishika Ashar
Ava Manning
Maddy Zampardo
Claire Hill
Alanis Hamilton

 

[oldwell]

We have 9 women on the UNC tennis team with eligibility remaining. We have 4 recruits listed in the OP in this thread who in theory arrive this season. 3 of those were officially listed as signed in the recruiting class posted by UNC media and the official site article here.

Aya Manning was not officially posted. Perhaps an oversight, or perhaps her offer was delayed, is still contingent on availability, or she is a grayshirt to arrive in the spring or the fall of 2027? I do not know. But she did have a signing ceremony at her high school she posted here. And she is followed by UNC tennis and pretty much the entire UNC team commented on her signing post i linked. so this seems fully legit. I think her post was well after our official announcements, so maybe she is just a late add to the class.

But that is either 12 or 13 women. The roster cap is 10. That leaves two possibilities: we already knew someone(s) is/were transferring out or there are player(s) on this roster who has/have always been walk-ons and they are grandfathered in as roster exceptions until they graduate.

My guess is that is is more of the latter. Tennis has in the past been a "head-count" sport by NCAA parlance. That means the previous limit of 8 scholarships could only go for full rides. It was not an "equivalency" sport where one scholarship could be divided among multiple players. So as recently as last year when we had that scholarship limit of 8, but a roster of 11, that meant that at least 3 women on our team were not on scholarship. I seriously doubt it was Reese Brantmeier, our best player. Doubtful it was Kajuru either, a pretty highly touted transfer. So perhaps those three are still on the roster? Perhaps we can stay at 13?

But it seems pretty likely it was not more than 3. I am pretty sure that UNC had all 8 potential women's scholarships funded prior to the NCAA v House settlement. 13 seems like it is a pretty hard limit.

All of this is to say, based on the series of assumptions in this post, there is likely no way that our roster will be more that 13. So I am going to hypothesize that absent someone transferring out, or quitting tennis completely who was previously on scholarship, we currently appear to have zero room for transfers. UNC has never had an undergrad player transfer out of this program in the entire portal era, and so far, no announcements I know of. So that too seems unlikely.

So I think we are roiling with our returning players, hoping for continued growth and development, and putting a lot of hope into our stellar recruiting class of domestic talent. I have no inside info, just doing the math with some assumptions and deductive reasoning. .

If you want to follow tennis recruiting and transfers, che4ck out parsabombs and tennisrecruiting.net.

Makes sense - thank you for the well-worded response!

 

[3397char]

Note that as of right now we will have very little room in the 2027 class as well, especially if the 5 to play 5 rule goes into affect. Rabman, Evans and Zampardo will be seniors next year, but I do not believe any of them took a redshirt, so all three should be eligible to return. On paper that is three women you would want to return as they contribute to varying degrees. We also already have a top 2027 recruit committed. sounds like we may be full for 2027, so probably no more hs or transfer recruits unless we see attrition.

edit: incoming transfer Khirin is a redshirt senior currently. So she will likely only spend one year at UNC regardless of the 5-to-play-5 rule pending. She will not affect the 2027 class.

 

[TAHeel]

I would not be surprised to see a transfer, if not a few.

 

[GoHeels95]

Off topic but still interesting, Schneider the hired gun from NCeSt a few years ago just beat top seed Sabalenka at the French Open.

 

[GoHeels95]

Schnaider didn’t advance to the final losing to Chwalinska who just might be my new favorite player. Not because she beat Schnaider, but there is no grunting, no demonstrations. Just beautiful tennis.

 

[3397char]

How long was Schnaider at NCSU? She missed the entire Fall, early spring including half the ITA Indoors and skipped out on the indiv NCAA championships at the end of her only year. She first competed in mid-Feb, missed part of the ACC season in March & April for pro tournament(s), and then left in May. So 3 months and change with a break in the middle?

20-3 at NCSU. By comparison, Fiona Crawley was 47-3 that year so Shnaider missed over 1/2 of the matches a top player would have. (Crawley and Shnaider split match-ups, IIRC)

I would bet that every NCSU course she took was online. She arrived too late for in-person classes (Australian Open). She never even had her bio filled out on the NCSU web page.

She was only there at all because Russian tennis players appeared they would be barred from pro competition. None of this of course is her fault. She fullfilled her commitment to NCSU to play in the ACC's and Team NCAA's despite her pro eligibility clearing up. But it is pretty amusing to me how strongly NCSU is claiming her. That article gave her a very charitable "just one year."

 

[3397char]

This post seems to indicate Frey will return:

 

[JCTarHeel]

How long was Schnaider at NCSU? She missed the entire Fall, early spring including half the ITA Indoors and skipped out on the indiv NCAA championships at the end of her only year. She first competed in mid-Feb, missed part of the ACC season in March & April for pro tournament(s), and then left in May. So 3 months and change with a break in the middle?

20-3 at NCSU. By comparison, Fiona Crawley was 47-3 that year so Shnaider missed over 1/2 of the matches a top player would have. (Crawley and Shnaider split match-ups, IIRC)

I would bet that every NCSU course she took was online. She arrived too late for in-person classes (Australian Open). She never even had her bio filled out on the NCSU web page.

She was only there at all because Russian tennis players appeared they would be barred from pro competition. None of this of course is her fault. She fullfilled her commitment to NCSU to play in the ACC's and Team NCAA's despite her pro eligibility clearing up. But it is pretty amusing to me how strongly NCSU is claiming her. That article gave her a very charitable "just one year."

A true mercenary.

 

[TAHeel]

How long was Schnaider at NCSU? She missed the entire Fall, early spring including half the ITA Indoors and skipped out on the indiv NCAA championships at the end of her only year. She first competed in mid-Feb, missed part of the ACC season in March & April for pro tournament(s), and then left in May. So 3 months and change with a break in the middle?

20-3 at NCSU. By comparison, Fiona Crawley was 47-3 that year so Shnaider missed over 1/2 of the matches a top player would have. (Crawley and Shnaider split match-ups, IIRC)

I would bet that every NCSU course she took was online. She arrived too late for in-person classes (Australian Open). She never even had her bio filled out on the NCSU web page.

She was only there at all because Russian tennis players appeared they would be barred from pro competition. None of this of course is her fault. She fullfilled her commitment to NCSU to play in the ACC's and Team NCAA's despite her pro eligibility clearing up. But it is pretty amusing to me how strongly NCSU is claiming her. That article gave her a very charitable "just one year."

I would be shocked if you told me she was on campus for more than 60 days.

She missed our regular season matchup to play a pro tournament, she did beat up Fiona pretty good in ACCs which led to the decision to swap Reese/Fiona for the NCAAT. Reese acquitted herself well but never really challenged Shnaider.

 

[oldwell]

Assumed she felt like she wouldn’t be in the lineup this upcoming year

 

[UNCH]

Brian has made a lot of strange decisions these past few years.

Bringing in players early. Making room for NC state 4th best player. One and done Japan player.

Benching Thea, not playing Alanis.

The pressure to keep up with the other elite programs is taking a toll?

 

[oldwell]

Brian has made a lot of strange decisions these past few years.

Bringing in players early. Making room for NC state 4th best player. One and done Japan player.

Benching Thea, not playing Alanis.

The pressure to keep up with the other elite programs is taking a toll?

Did someone have to leave for Maddy to come in?

And bringing in a talented transfer like Oby was a great move.

 

[UNCH]

The current players all lost playing time by additions of Oby, Maddy and Anna.

Hill was the biggest one.

It was aggressive approach to win national title in Reese final season. The results would have been the same without them.

 

[TAHeel]

Assumed she felt like she wouldn’t be in the lineup this upcoming year

I would not be surprised to see a transfer, if not a few.

This was who I had in mind.

 

[Jriv23]

We do have some very good freshman coming in this year. I think one of them is ranked number 1 overall coming in from CA. I think Claire saw the writing on the wall. I think Brian made some good decisions. Anna Frey is dog gum good. Maddy Z is dog gum good. Go Heels!

 

[3397char]

Did someone have to leave for Maddy to come in?

And bringing in a talented transfer like Oby was a great move.

Forbes as well.

Utilizing the transfer portal Is the norm in college sports.

 

[3397char]

Reese already winning as an alumnus:
(W35 level event)



edit: she wins singles as well:

Silver at a W100 event!

 

[Jriv23]

Way to represent UNC, Reese. Go Heels!

 

[3397char]

One more accolade for Reece

 

[3397char]

UNC gets the 5th seed at next year’s ITA indoors as expected.

 

[Jriv23]

Who is the fourth see?

 

[JCTarHeel]

Who is the fourth see?

And the 12th.

 

[3397char]

And the 12th.

from ITA:
Ohio State and Michigan will not serve as 2027 ITA Kickoff Weekend hosts due to them automatically being qualified for the 2027 ITA Division I Women’s National Team Indoors as the two host sites

basically, the host teams get a bye to the round of 16.

 

[3397char]

Brantmeier has made it to the finals. If she wins she earns a wildcard into the US Open main draw.

the finals will be here on June 18that 6:30 pm on Cracked Raquets.


Brantmeier and Hamilton also play in the doubles semifinals today. That will stream here also 6:30 on cracked raquets.


https://www.ustanationalcampus.com/en/home/events/2026-american-collegiate-wildcard-playoffs.html#tab=women'sdraw

 

[rod99]

The current players all lost playing time by additions of Oby, Maddy and Anna.

Hill was the biggest one.

It was aggressive approach to win national title in Reese final season. The results would have been the same without them.

If reese did not fall apart at the end of the year we would have won it all.

I saw a tweet saying that Nicole Khirin of A&M is transferring in. Sat out this past season with an injury. however now i can't find it so maybe it's not true. that would be huge, as she was A&M's highest ranked player going into this past season.

 

[3397char]

I saw a tweet saying that Nicole Khirin of A&M is transferring in. Sat out this past season with an injury. however now i can't find it so maybe it's not true. that would be huge, as she was A&M's highest ranked player going into this past season.

This is HUGE. Pencil her in as our new #1



Nicole Khirin is from Israel. She held a UTR of 11.19 prior to her injury, which is within the top ten range in D1 women’s tennis.

And I was clearly completely wrong on our transfer portal math. Maybe Hill was on scholarship and her departure opened up this slot?