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