#GDTBATH: Ally Sentnor

When the National Women’s Soccer League draft kicked off in January in Anaheim, California, Tar Heel Ally Sentnor didn’t have to wait long to hear her name called. She was the first overall pick, selected by the Utah Royals.  

“We were in this enormous room with lights, media and cameras everywhere. It was a wild experience,” Sentnor said. “I remember shaking, walking on stage, thinking ‘don’t fall.’” 

Later, Sentnor met her new coach and teammates and celebrated along with the five other Tar Heels drafted. Throughout the night, she thought: “I just pursued a lifelong dream that’s coming true right now.” 

“That’s a moment you can’t really describe,” she said.  

The original Utah Royals team moved to Kansas City in 2020 to become the Kansas City Current. The team was reestablished as part of a league expansion before the 2024 season. They fielded a new roster through both an expansion draft and the college draft, where they selected Sentnor.  

Sentnor noted that as an expansion team competing in their first season together, the Royals are “building from the ground up” and says they’re “trying to build something special.” She and her teammates have spent the preseason period building the team chemistry they’ll need to compete once the season starts on March 16.  

Sentnor’s Tar Heel career prepared her for this kind of challenge. She missed playing her first college season due to an ACL tear in her first game. After the initial frustration, she saw that experience as a chance to grow. 

“I think it changed my perception of my career, and how I go about things, for the better,” she said. “At one point my mindset changed, and I thought, ‘I can’t go back in time and change this. I have to see what I can learn from it.’”  

Sentnor learned how to celebrate every small win in her life and to be a great teammate from the sidelines. Without some of the demands of full participation in soccer, she took the opportunity to explore and enjoy everything life at Carolina has to offer. 

She enrolled in the introductory advertising and public relations courses in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media and decided to switch her major. While working with UNCUT, a student organization that tells student-athlete stories, she grew to love digital storytelling. After her playing career is over, Sentnor hopes to work in digital media. The school has accommodated Sentnor’s need to finish her degree remotely while playing for Utah, and she plans to graduate in December.  

For now, Sentnor is focused on her professional game, including her dream of following in the footsteps many Carolina women’s soccer trailblazers by playing for the U.S. women’s national soccer team. She believes the Royals can win the NWSL championship this year, but her experience with adversity in her college career taught her that winning isn’t everything.  

“My goal is to win championships, but I also want to build lifelong relationships and explore the new places that I’ll get to live in,” she said.  

Wherever her career takes her, Sentnor will carry Chapel Hill in her heart.  

“I’m a Tar Heel through and through, and I’m always going to be a Tar Heel,” she said. “I love Chapel Hill. It really is a special place. If I had just gone and played professional soccer right out of high school, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today. I owe so much to Carolina.”