Plenty of star power was present at the Kitty Harrison Invitational, and in the end, the home team’s top player came out on top.
UNC-Chapel Hill hosted the biggest women’s event of the weekend with top players from recent Elite Eight participants, and others — Georgia, Michigan, Virginia, Duke, Charlotte, Elon, JMU and Kansas State.
The field included 14 ranked athletes, including eight in the top 50. The tournament had six flights with eight players in each.
Ranked participants:
No. 5 Aysegul Mert (Georgia), No. 6 Piper Charney (Michigan), No. 8 Irina Balus (Duke), No. 21 Tatum Evans (UNC), No. 27 Deniz Dilek (Georgia), No. 32 Vivian Yang (Virginia), No. 48 Katie Rolls (Virginia), No. 50 Reese Miller (Michigan), No. 58 Liv Hovde (Duke), No. 59 Eugenia Zozaya Menendez (Virginia), No. 64 Emily Sartz-Lunde (Michigan), No. 85 Alexis Nguyen (UNC), No. 95 Nicole Khirin (UNC), No. 112 Shannon Lam (Virginia).
No. 21 Tatum Evans of North Carolina took the top flight title with three wins in six sets, looking dominant throughout. First, she took out No. 32 Vivian Yang of Virginia 6-2, 6-2, before wiping No. 58 Liv Hovde of Duke 6-4, 6-1.
No. 48 Katie Rolls (UVA) entered the title match red hot after taking out the former No. 1 coming off an injury, Nicole Khirin (UNC), 6-3, 6-4, and then bested No. 5 Aysegul Mert (Georgia) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Rolls’ style proved to be difficult for Evans as she smacked winner after winner and constantly attacked at the net, exclaiming her satisfaction with every won point. But Evans outlasted her charges to claim the Kitty Harrison title and celebrated with a subdued fistbump.
Evans’ steady demeanor is a big feature of her game — never too high, never too low. While Rolls steamed forward, Evans met what she could with a sufficient reply. When asked about her emotions after winning the title, this was her reply:
“Uh, kind of neutral, you know?,” Evans said. “This is our first tournament, so it’s definitely just a growth opportunity. And that’s how I’ve mentally been taking it the entire time, so I wouldn’t say I’m, like, ecstatic or anything. I’m kind of just neutral, happy with the way I played. I’m happy that I have a better idea of what I need to work on and what I’m doing well.”
“It takes the stress out of it. If you just take everything as a learning opportunity, there’s really no downside to that, ’cause if things don’t go your way and you lose, you look at it as, okay, but now I know what I need to work on, and it’s like, everything is positive.”
The neutral feelings are more present as the fall season sees less energy from players compared to the spring where players thrive off the energy from their teammates and a common goal. But some players still know how to bring it. Rolls is certainly one of them.
Bringing unfiltered energy is one thing. Bringing positive energy is another. No. 6 Piper Charney brought just that despite going 1-2 on the weekend. Charney was all smiles after her loss to fifth year No. 95 Nicole Khirin, giving her credit for “kicking her a**” and returning from her injury with a strong performance.
“I love Nicky,” Charney said. “She’s such a great girl and we played a really great match last time when she was still healthy in Waco when she was at Texas A&M. So it’s good to see her back out here.”
Last time they matched up, Khirin took out Charney after dropping the first set, 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 in 2025 at the NCAA team semifinals.
Another strong performer at Kitty Harrison was No. 27 Deniz Dilek (Georgia), who also took a dominant route to three straight-set wins against solid competition — 6-2, 6-1 versus Claire An (Duke), 6-3, 6-4 versus Maddy Zampardo (UNC) and 6-3, 6-2 versus Karina Mohamed (CLT).
No. 50 Reese Miller (Michigan) and No. 112 Shannon Lam (Virginia) faced off in the second main draw final, with Lam looking dominant and winning 6-4, 6-2.
Takeaways:
-Two or three of the main core of teams that came to Chapel Hill this weekend will likely compete for the national title in the spring in Athens.
-UNC comes out of the home match looking extremely strong with Khirin returning to form and Evans taking a step forward, and four of their potential starters not even present, playing in the Milwaukee Tennis Classic
-Virginia and Carolina will be formidable with tons of depth
-Georgia has the pieces to take advantage of its home-court advantage in NCAAs
All but Duke lost a major part of their squad from last season: Georgia’s Anastasia Lopata, UNC’s Reese Brantmeier, Michigan’s Lily Jones, Virginia’s Annabelle Xu, all graduated. Maybe, they will receive a fifth year from the Colorado Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. If not, development from freshmen over the fall season will be important to monitor.
We will find out more about these squads next week as the ITA All American Championship takes place in Cary, NC Sept. 19-27.
