Balancing Act

Pierce Shaya excels in the classroom and on the court

By Steve Stein

Pierce Shaya’s tennis career has always been associated with unbelievable numbers.

His career record playing for the Bloomfield Hills High School boys tennis team from 2021-24 was 103-2. He was 77-1 in singles matches and 26-1 in doubles matches.

He was 16-0 in four trips to the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division 1 state tournament, winning state championships at No. 3 singles, No. 1 doubles, No. 2 singles and No. 1 singles, respectively, from his freshman through senior seasons.

The Blackhawks won three straight team state titles in Shaya’s final three years on the team.

Ranked the No. 1 high school boys tennis recruit in Michigan in the Class of 2025 and in the top 50 nationally by tennisrecruiting.net, Shaya is now a freshman on the University of Michigan men’s tennis team, a program with a long history of success in both the Big Ten Conference and NCAA Tournament.

Shaya’s impressive numbers have continued with the Wolverines.

Playing with red-shirt freshman Max Dahlin from Sweden—the No. 5-ranked singles player in college tennis who has a victory over No. 3-ranked two-time NCAA singles champion Michael Zheng of Columbia on his resume this season—Shaya and Dahlin were 4-0 at No. 1 doubles as of late February.

There’s another number associated with Shaya these days that he’s very proud of. It’s 3.85, as in a 3.85 grade-point average in a tough economic and political science curriculum at U-M.

Someday in the future, when it’s time to stop competing in tennis at a high level, Shaya wants a career in investment banking.

That goal is driving him to excel academically at U-M as much as he excels on the tennis court.

“I take a lot of pride in doing well academically, and going the extra mile to do it,” Shaya said.

Playing sports at the Division I level requires an enormous time commitment. Shaya is learning what it takes to navigate those waters while keeping up with his classes.

“Practice, matches and travel keep you very busy,” he said. “It’s important to get your rest with all this going on. I try to sleep at least eight hours each night.”

Shaya recalled a January match in Charlottsville, Virginia, where the Wolverines came from behind to beat Cornell 4-3, then their attention quickly turned to academics. 

“We didn’t have much time to celebrate because we had to make up the work we’d missed because we were on the road,” Shaya said.

Shaya’s family—including his parents Donnovan and Amy; younger brother Connor, a senior at Bloomfield Hills; older sister Amy, a U-M senior; and uncle Chris Shaya, who played tennis for the Wolverines from 1999-2002 and is now a highly respected tennis teaching professional—are proud of Pierce for both his tennis and academic acumen in Ann Arbor.

“I think Pierce was more focused on his tennis than academics in high school but now that he’s in college, he’s looking at tennis and academics like they were two full-time jobs and managing it well,” his father said.

“It’s a dream come true for Pierce to play tennis for U-M, not just because of the family connection. We first took him to the Varsity Tennis Center (where the Wolverines play their home matches) to see U-M play Michigan State when he was 7. The place first became magic for him then.”

Pierce had played a few singles matches for U-M as of late February. He was 1-0 at No. 5 singles and 1-3 at No. 6 singles. 

He lost two No. 3 doubles matches before being paired with Dahlin at No. 1 doubles in early February an effort by U-M coach Sean Maymi to spread the talent in the Wolverines’ doubles lineup.

“Max (Dahlin) is an unbelievable player, so skilled,” Pierce said. “It’s an honor to play with one of the top collegiate tennis players in the country. 

“Max and I have a good system. Our coach calls it ‘boring doubles.’ We don’t do anything crazy. We keep things simple. That’s good because doubles is a whole different language from singles.”

Dahlin told the Michigan Daily last month that, “I think the combination of Pierce’s firepower, my touch at the net and my availability to play freely up there is what has led us to our success.”

Pierce wasn’t enamored with doubles when he came to U-M and he admittedly didn’t play doubles well in early practice sessions.

But now, “I’ve grown to love doubles,” he said. “The matches are short (one set) and exciting. The opportunity to play doubles with Max came out the blue, but I embraced it because our singles lineup is tough to crack.”

One of Pierce’s wins with Dahlin came against Columbia’s Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen.