NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion University women’s tennis team enters the 2016 preseason nationally ranked No. 57, as announced by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association today.
Old Dominion is one of three teams to be nationally ranked this preseason, as Rice enters the year ranked No. 31 and Marshall sits at No. 57.
Complete Women’s National ITA Team Rankings
The ITA also released regional rankings on Tuesday and Nataliya Vlasova is ranked No. 10 in the Atlantic region, while teammate Ingrid Vojcinakova enters the season ranked No. 20 in the region.
Complete ITA Women’s Atlantic Region Singles and Doubles Rankings
The Lady Tennis Monarchs finished the 2015 season nationally ranked No. 56 by the ITA, which is the highest season-end ranking for the program since the 2001 season, when the team finished No. 35.
ODU finished the 2015 year with a 16-6 overall record, which included wins over nationally ranked No. 61 VCU (4-3) and No. 48 ranked Marshall (7-0). ODU head coach Dom Manilla returns all six starters for the 2015-16 season.
The 7-0 victory against No. 48 Marshall is the highest ranked team ODU has beaten during Manilla’s tenure at the school. Last season, Coach Manilla and the Lady Tennis Monarchs defeated two Hall of Fame coaches in Paul Kostin (VCU) and Dr. David Porter (BYU-Hawaii). At one point last season, ODU went on an eight-match win streak, as well as won 11 of 12 matches.
In all in 2014-15, five different Lady Tennis Monarchs raked in all conference honors. Borislava Botusharova made First Team for singles and was named the C-USA Freshman of the Year. Ingrid Vojcinakova joined Botusharova on First Team for singles, while Nikol Hristova and Marijana Novakovic garnered Second Team accolades. Ivana Vukovic claimed a spot on the Third Team for singles and the Botusharova/Hristova tandem teamed up to make Third Team All Conference USA for doubles.
Vojcinakova was one of just six members named to the Conference USA All-Academic Team, while five Lady Tennis Monarchs garnered C-USA Honor Roll recognition for having above 3.0 cumulative grade point averages.
In May, Botusharova was named the recipient of the 2015 Rookie of the Year award by the ITA for the entire Atlantic region.
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