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No. 22 Women's Tennis Hosts Pair Of Weekend Matchups

No. 22 Women's Tennis Hosts Pair Of Weekend MatchupsNo. 22 Women's Tennis Hosts Pair Of Weekend Matchups
Ricky Bassman

NORFOLK, Va. – The 22nd ranked Old Dominion women's tennis team will host a pair of matchups this weekend at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.
 
Friday morning they will tangle with the Missouri Tigers at 11:30 a.m., followed by a 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon encounter with the Penn Quakers.
 
ODU (5-5) split a pair of matches last weekend defeating in-state rival Virginia Tech 4-1 on Feb. 18 and dropping a 4-2 decision at Kansas on Feb. 20.
 
Yuliia Starodubtseva and Alexandra Viktorovich lead the team in singles wins this spring with 7-1 records, while Sofia Johnson (6-4) and Tatsiana Sasnouskaya (5-5) are just behind them.
 
The latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association individual rankings were released on Thursday morning and ODU had three singles players and one doubles tandem in the lists.
 
Starodubtseva moved up ten spots in the rankings to 37th, while Viktorovich made her debut in the rankings at 80th.  Sasnouskaya rounded out the singles rankings at 125th.  In doubles, the tandem of Starodubtseva and Sasnouskaya are currently fifth in the rankings.
 
Missouri is currently 5-5 after splitting a pair of matches on Wednesday as they started a Virginia swing at Liberty.  They lost to the host Flames 4-3, but defeated James Madison 4-3 later in the day.
 
Penn is 4-3 on the season and will play at William & Mary on Saturday before heading to Norfolk.  The Quakers lost at the ECAC Indoor Championship to Columbia 5-2 in their last match before heading south on Feb. 13. 
 
The Quakers do have a ranked singles player in Iuliia Bryzgalova (86th), and a ranked doubles pairing of Bryzgalova and Marija Curnic at 41st.
 
ODU HEAD COACH DOMINIC MANILLA ON WEEKEND MATCHUPS
"It's going to be an exciting weekend for us with hosting an SEC team in Missouri and a very strong UPenn squad.  Missouri is a battle tested team and will make us be on our game for a tough battle.  UPenn is one of the top teams in a very strong Ivy League this year.  Our matchups with them have always been hard fought contests.