On May 25, two girls 
dressed in matching 
white tops and navy 
skirts took their posi-
tions to play doubles in 
a tennis match in Or-
lando, Fla.
But these were no ordi-
nary girls, no ordinary 
outfits and, certainly, no 
ordinary match.
It was the final evening 
of the NCAA Division 
I Men’s & Women’s 
Tennis Tournament. The 
two girls that stepped 
onto that court each had 
already made history 
in their own ways and 
were hungry for one 
final mark. The white 
shirts they donned were 
emblazoned with a 
block ‘M’, a symbol that 
connected them to the 
University of Michigan. 
And as the first serve 
flew over the net, Bri-
enne Minor and Kate 
Fahey were officially 
competing for a national 
championship. 
Together. 
One last time. 
***
Brienne Minor, from 
Mundelein, Ill., started 
her career at Michigan 
as a sought-after high 
school recruit. She got 
serious looks and gave 
strong consider-

ations to other esteemed 
programs such as UCLA 
and Northwestern. But 
on Nov. 13, 2014, Minor 
verbally committed to 
play for the Wolverines, 
and thus began her illus-
trious collegiate tennis 
career. 
As a freshman, she was 
All-Big Ten and a 2016 
ITA All-American in 
singles and in doubles, 
which made her only the 
second player in school 
history to earn both 
honors.
In her sophomore sea-
son, Minor made his-
tory. 
She was crowned the 
2017 NCAA Singles 
Champion.
Not only was she the 
first in program history 
to achieve such a feat, 
she became the first in 
Big Ten women’s ten-
nis history to do so. 
She was the first Black 
female to ever win the 
title. The last Black 
athlete to win an NCAA 
Singles title was Arthur 
Ashe in 1995.
Bouncing back off two 
knee procedures that 
derailed her junior year, 
Minor’s senior year was 
impressive. She won the 
ITA Midwest Regionals 
title, was named All-
American in doubles 
and All-Big Ten, was 

2019 NCAA National 
runner-up in doubles, 
which shattered the 
school record for tour-
nament advances, and 
closed out her collegiate 
career as Michigan’s 
all-time leader in All-
America citations 
with four.
After she won the sin-
gles title in her sopho-
more year and sat out 
junior year recovering 
from her knee surgeries, 
Minor felt the pressure 
to perform to her highest 
caliber her senior year. 
Her team and coaches, 
however, were always 
reassuring and confident 
in her. 
“I think for (Minor), she 
wins the whole thing 
two years ago, and it’s 
a lot of added pressure 
on her to duplicate that,” 
said Michigan coach 
Ronni Bernstein on the 
2019 Nationals com-
petition. “I mean, we 
told her, ‘You have this 
forever. You don’t have 
to live up to this every 
year, because who can?’ 
“That’s tough, in a 
sense, dealing with win-
ning (the 2017 NCAA 
Singles title) and the 
pressure that comes with 
that. And she did incred-
ible. You see how she 
helped us this year, on 

the 
court and 
off, especially.”
In her four years, Minor 
gave Michigan much 
more than records – she 
has set an example of a 
strong-willed teammate, 
competitor and friend.
***
Kate Fahey, from Fair 
Haven, N.J., was always 
one to watch. Notori-
ous for her competitive 
nature and fiery on-court 
persona, Fahey’s career 
followed suit.
Her freshman year, 
Fahey was All-Big Ten, 
went 9-0 in conference 
play, and started her 
reputation of win streaks 
with 15 straight singles 
victories during the 
2016 season. 
Hungry for more, she 
started off her sopho-
more year with a bang. 
Fahey won both the ITA 
Midwest Regional Sin-
gles and Doubles Cham-
pionships, which earned 
her an automatic berth 
to the National Indoor 
Intercollegiate Champi-
onships, where she and 
then-junior Alex Najari-
an took home the crown 
in doubles. She also 
extended her conference 
win streak in singles to 
18-0 and earned the first 
All-American honor of 
her career.
Fahey’s junior sea-
son brought her two 
Big Ten Athlete of the 
Week honors, a second 
straight NCAA Singles 
berth, an Academic 
All Big-Ten honor, a 
unanimous All-Big Ten 
selection and a 2018 Big 
Ten Athlete of the Year 
honor, among other in-
dividual achievements. 
Even amid those ac-
colades, Fahey’s se-
nior season took her to 
another level. She was a 
two-time Big Ten Ten-
nis Athlete of the Week, 
won a record 21-straight 
singles matches at 
No. 1, was an ITA 
All-American in both 
singles and doubles and 
earned a unanimous 
All-Big Ten selection. 
And, after closing out 

her 
collegiate ca-
reer as a doubles nation-
al runner-up with Minor, 
Fahey was named 2019 
Big Ten Athlete of the 
Year, Michigan’s Fe-
male Athlete of the Year, 
and is now the win-
ningest player in pro-
gram history. 
“Kate’s unbelievable 
work ethic is inspiring,” 
said assistant coach 
Teryn Ashley-Fitch. 
“I mean, it’s inspiring 
to see. I’ve never met 
anyone who loves tennis 
more than Kate. 
“I think if you talked 
to any coach in the 
country, or any coach at 
Michigan, they would 
want to have someone 
like Kate compete the 
way that she does and 
train the way that she 
does. We’ve never seen 
anyone like her before, 
and I don’t know that 
we’ll see anyone like 
her again.”
***
While their respec-
tive achievements 
and accomplishments 
aided Fahey and Minor 
in earning esteemed 
reputations and engrav-
ing their names into 
program and national 
history, it was actually 
the game they played 
together that made 
these two girls such an 
anomaly. 
Minor and Fahey were 
the duo that the Michi-
gan women’s tennis 
team had, but never 
knew it needed. The 
unlikely pairing of two 
very different, talented 
players allowed them 
to connect, win and 
play their final game for 
Michigan, as a pair, for 
a national championship 
title.
Throughout the four 
years together, Minor 
and Fahey were primar-
ily paired up with other 
teammates and per-
formed well with whom-
ever they were matched 
up. Michigan was con-
sistently ranked nation-

al-
ly in at least 
one doubles pair, espe-
cially Fahey/Najarian in 
2017, who topped the 
chart at No. 1. How-
ever, following sporadic 
losses, the coaching 
staff would shake things 
up to see who would 
click, knowing who had 
performed well level all 
season. 
A few times during the 
first three years, Minor 
and Fahey were paired 
up and competed at a 
high level, but the “nor-
malcy” of other pairings 
was always returned 
soon after. 
Their senior year, as two 
of the strongest players 
on the roster, they were 
placed together on the 
court for most of the 
season, once the Michi-
gan coaching staff was 
confident in the pairs 
at the No. 2 and No. 3 
spots. 
“We didn’t have (Minor 
and Fahey) necessarily 
as partners — you try 
to have three teams that 
you feel like you can get 
that doubles point,” said 
Bernstein. “This year, 
we put them together in 
the fall and then more so 
going into Big Tens and 
the end of the year. 
They know each other 
really well and I think 
they trust each other. 
I think that’s why you 
saw such good results.”
Added Ashley-Fitch: 
“I mean, they’re so 
different. In terms of 
their doubles combina-
tion, we knew that they 
were going to be a rock 
solid team just because 
of what they bring to 
the table. Kate is super 
solid, Bri is really ag-
gressive. And we knew 
they would complement 
each other, it was just 
about getting them and 
getting our team to the 
spot that we can play 
them together.”

8 — Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

SHIRA ZISHOLTZ
Daily Sports Writer

Brienne Minor and Kate Fahey leave 
the program with illustrious careers

Reflecting on a 
historical duo: 
Fahey and Minor

Design by Roseanne Chao
Alec Cohen / Daily

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

