NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- Both the Old Dominion men's and women's tennis teams knew they were getting into the NCAA Tournament going into Monday's Selection Show, but there's still nothing like seeing your name appear in the bracket.
"It's special, always special, especially in this environment where we have so much support here tonight," Monarch women's head coach Dominic Manilla said. "When your name is read, it feels very good. It feels very special."
"We [have] a couple seniors and we've never seen our name on the board," added men's senior Luca Maldoner. "It's pretty cool to see our name for the first time and it's an exciting opponent."
It will be a case of one-stop shopping for ODU tennis fans. Both the men and women will begin their NCAA Tournament showings in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The women open play on Friday against South Carolina, while Dominik Mueller's men face Utah in first round action on Saturday.
"It's a very good team, it's a very good program with very competitive players," women's senior Tatsiana Sasnouskaya said of the Gamecocks. "They have a couple of ranked players at the top of their line-up so it's going to be a very exciting match for the team."
"We haven't really crossed paths or know too much about them," Mueller noted of the Utes, adding they had an incredible season. "The next couple days we're going to do our homework or research about their players and what they're like."
The Monarch women enter with an 18-4 record and have won 13 matches in a row. They're a perfect 10-0 in Sun Belt play and rolled to the conference title this past weekend. 2023 marks the squad's fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance and it will be looking to win a match in the big dance for the third straight time. A victory on Friday would pit them against either North Carolina or Charleston Southern on Saturday.
"I think our program has always been geared towards trying to win bigger matches and bigger tournaments," pointed out Manilla. "We've always made our schedule a little tougher at the beginning, we slow it down, then we peak up and try to pick it up at the back end and this year we've definitely done that and I feel like we are playing our best."
"We definitely have a lot to offer," Sasnouskaya added. "We have a very experienced team and last year and the year before we had pretty positive experience in the NCAA Tournament."
The ODU men come into May with an 18-9 record, 7-1 in Sun Belt matches, and have won seven in a row, including a Sun Belt Championship last week. These Monarchs are making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018. North Carolina and Drake meet in the pod's other first round match-up, with the winners of each clashing on Sunday for a trip to Orlando.
"We've really clicked the last couple of weeks," Maldoner said of his squad. "I think we're going in there with a lot of confidence and we're ready to do this."
"We're a team that nobody wants to play," Mueller added. "I'm sure Utah's going to look at our resume the last couple of weeks and say 'they're as hot as we are.' I think you're going to see two teams that have been really hot the last three or four weeks playing each other."
The Old Dominion women and South Carolina square off Friday at 2:00 PM, while the men meet Utah on Saturday at 10:00 AM.
