Nov. 18, 2011
CHAPEL HILL --- Ashley Dai of Temple City, Calif., and Whitney Kay of Alpharetta, Ga., have signed National Letters of Intent to play tennis at North Carolina, head coach Brian Kalbas announced Friday.
"We are extremely excited to add Ashley and Whitney to the Carolina tennis family," Kalbas said. "These two young ladies are among the best and the brightest nationally and I am confident that they will be tremendous assets to our program for years to come. I think what makes them really stand out is that in addition to being talented, they are very hard workers who are always looking to improve their game and they are eager to get to Chapel Hill and contribute to our team."
Dai is currently ranked as the No. 10 overall player in the class and is considered a Blue Chip prospect by TennisRecruiting.net. A 5-2 right-hander out of the Weil Tennis Academy, Dai is 36-15 over the last year with 25 of the wins coming against fellow Blue Chip prospects and five-star opponents.
A three-time UTSA Gold Ball winner, Dai is a decorated player in both singles and doubles. She won the Winter National Championships doubles title three straight years from 2007 to 2009 and captured the Casablanca ITF G4 singles event in 2010. Dai was also part of a team that won the 2011 16s Intersectionals, and she was undefeated in the event.
Kay is currently ranked at the No. 5 overall player in the class and is also considered a Blue Chip prospect by TennisRecruiting.net. One of the nation's top junior players for the last several years, Kay has been ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section since the age of 14 and reached the No. 1 spot in the national rankings in 2010.
A winner of the Southern Closed Championship at the 12s, 14s and 18s, Kay has won 10 USTA National Championship Gold Balls and 8 USTA National Championship Silver Balls as well as a number of regional and national sportsmanship awards, including at the 2009 USTA National Championship Hard Courts and the 2010 USTA Spring Nationals. Kay has compiled a remarkable 66-10 record over the last year, including 40 wins over Blue Chip and five-star competition.
