NORFOLK, Va. -- For the second time in school history, the Old Dominion women's tennis team will participate in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor National Championships held at the University of Wisconsin.
Old Dominion (3-2) will begin play on Friday afternoon taking on the fifth-seeded Pepperdine Waves at 4:30 p.m. (EST) at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The Monarchs are in the same quarterfinal draw as fourth-seeded Cal and Texas A&M. Texas is the top-seed in the event with North Carolina second and Georgia third.
This marks ODU's second appearance in the event with the last coming in 2002, ironically also at Wisconsin. In that event, the Monarchs lost to 6th-ranked Tennessee, 20th-ranked Baylor and host Wisconsin.
Old Dominion enters the 2022 championships off a pair of wins in the Atlanta regional defeating host and 12th-ranked Georgia Tech along with Ole Miss 4-3. The Monarchs were outside last weekend in Florida and fell to the 13th-ranked Florida Gators (4-2) and 20th-ranked Miami Hurricanes (4-3).
MANILLA ON TOURNAMENT PREP
It's been a fun few weeks grinding it on the road. We took some tough, competitive losses 4-2 to Florida and 4-3 to Miami. Both matches we had our chances to win the team event but weren't quite there. You win or you learn and it was a great learning experience for our team. Tough losses like that are also very powerful bonding events for teams.
MANILLA ON MOOD OF TEAM HEADING TO WISCONSIN
We are looking better on the court than we were a week ago in Atlanta, and we are more acclimated to the level at the toughest of locations. We are very ready for our chances at the national indoor. I can't wait to get there.
MANILLA ON FLORIDA HIGHLIGHTS
We had some phenomenal individual performances all across the board: Alex (Alexandra Viktorovich) went 2-0 in Florida at the 3 and 4 positions and picked up another ranked win against Florida, which is what we expect out of Alex. She has been performing at her highest level. I'm really happy to see her reaping the rewards of her hard work Alesya's (Yakubovich) strong straight set win at Florida as well as (Yuliia) Starodubtseva and (Sofia) Johnson's impressive third set grind in the heat at Miami will also stand out as key points for their seasons.
First Round Pairings
All times CST (seeding)
Friday, February 11
Match 1: North Carolina (2) vs. Ohio State, 9 a.m.
Match 2: Virginia (7) vs. Florida, 9 a.m.
Match 3: Georgia (3) vs. Washington, 12 p.m.
Match 4: N.C. State (6) vs. Auburn, 12 p.m.
Match 5: Pepperdine (5) vs. Old Dominion, 3:30 p.m.
Match 6: California (4) vs. Texas A&M, 3:30 p.m.
Match 7: Texas (1) vs. USC, 6:30 p.m.
Match 8: Oklahoma (8) vs. Wisconsin, 6:30 p.m.
Women's Tennis Draws Pepperdine In ITA Indoor Nationals Opener Friday
