NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion men’s tennis is set to begin their spring schedule on Saturday, January 13, with home matches against Monmouth at 1:00 p.m. and Morgan State at 4:00 p.m. at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center. Admission for all is free.
The Monarchs enter this season following a year in which they finished 19-6 and made it all the way back to the Conference USA Championship.
Old Dominion’s team is comprised of eight upperclassmen (six seniors), as well as three underclassmen. In addition, they have the C-USA Player of the Year in Adam Moundir, a couple of former Players of the Month in Aziz Kijametovic and Jacob Nicolussi, and a top 25 nationally ranked doubles tandem in Kijametovic and Francois Musitelli (No. 22).
ODU will face three teams that were ranked in the top 25 to end last season (No. 2 Wake Forest, No. 21 South Carolina and No. 25 Columbia) and another eight teams that won their respective conferences. To begin this season, Wake Forest is the No. 1 ranked team in the country, while South Carolina and Columbia remain in the ITA’s Top 25.
Monmouth finished last season with a 13-12 record and with an undefeated record in its conference.
Morgan State finished last season with an overall record of 8-13 but did manage to go undefeated at home as well as in conference play.
Looking Ahead for the Tennis Monarchs
After opening weekend, the Monarchs go on the road for matches against No. 23 Columbia, UPenn, No. 1 Wake Forest and either Vanderbilt or Portland, as part of the ITA National Kick-Off. The next time ODU will play at home won’t be until February 10, when the Monarchs host Louisiana Lafayette before taking on No. 20 ranked South Carolina the next day. Those two contests begin a stretch of five straight home matches for the Monarchs.
Conference play begins on March 16, when the Monarchs face Middle Tennessee at 2:00 p.m. in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. While in Murfreesboro, ODU will also have matches against FAU and Charlotte. ODU ends the regular season on April 15, at home against William & Mary before the Conference USA Tournament begins on April 20 in Houston, Texas.