NORFOLK, Va. – Yuliia Starodubtseva and Andy Garriola come from very different backgrounds.
Starodubtseva was raised in Kakhovka, Ukraine, a manufacturing and port city on the Dnieper River that in the best of times, is the equivalent of a Midwest rust belt city. Until a few years ago, she spoke little English.
Garriola, meanwhile, grew up in Sierra Madre, California, a small, affluent city in northern Los Angeles County in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, where he and his family lived the American dream.
But they have much more in common than you would think.
Both had loving parents who encouraged and supported their desire to excel at sports.
Both traveled thousands of miles to attend ODU, where they helped the school win a combined three, and hopefully four, Conference USA championships.
And they both have a burning desire to make the most of their extraordinary athletic talent.
So, it wasn't a big surprise that when ODU's coaches, athletes and staff met earlier this week to celebrate the 2021-22 athletic season, they were named ODU's male and female athletes of the year. It was the second year in a row that Starodubtseva was named Female Athlete of the Year.
Starodubtseva and her women's tennis teammates returned from Tennessee last week with their second C-USA title in a row. She is preparing for the NCAA Tournament in May where she will compete not only with the team, but in doubles and singles play.
She and doubles partner Tatsiana Sasnouskaya have a shot at winning a national championship.
Garriola was a cog on the baseball team that won its first C-USA title last spring and had its best season ever, going 44-16 and advancing to the NCAA Regional finals for the first time in program history.
Both have compelling stories.
There aren't enough superlatives to describe how much courage Starodubtseva displayed this spring. I've never seen anything like it.
Imagine your hometown is being bombed and strafed by invaders intent on subjugating you to their will. Then imagine living thousands of miles away in a foreign country, where you are going to college and are the best player on a very good college tennis team and are helpless to do anything to help your family.
Imagine putting the worry and stress aside enough to not only become a Top 20 player, but a Dean's List student.
That's what Starodubtseva has done.
Men's tennis coach Dominik Mueller has marveled at how well she played.
"What she's done this year, it's a hall of fame season," he said. "I'm in awe of her."
Her hometown was quickly overrun by the Russian Army in its brutal invasion of Ukraine. In February, just before an early season match, one of her father's best friends was shot through the head traversing a road her father had used to get home 10 minutes earlier.
When the match ended, he buried her head in a towel and cried, neither the first nor the last time she has shed tears.
In the first days of the invasion, her family hid in the basements of the two houses they occupied as Ukrainian and Russian troops battled for control.
Every morning, afternoon and evening she was on the phone with them. She checked her news feed constantly for updates on the war. She vacillated between worry and anger. Some nights she hardly slept.
Russians now control the city and even though things are relatively peaceful, "I don't know what's going to happen and that's scary.
"There is no fighting there now, but they often hear bombs in the distance."
The slaughter of hundreds of civilians in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb retaken by the Ukrainian Army, has increased her fears.
"I can't imagine this is happening in my country," she said. "It worries me, every day, every night."
And yet she has had, as Mueller calls it, a hall of fame season.
She is 20-1 in singles and upset Princeton's Daria Frayman, then the nation's No. 1 player, in three sets.
She teamed with Sasnouskaya to defeat Oklahoma's Ivana and Carmen Corley in the ITA All-American championships, who were then ranked first nationally.
"It's hard to explain Yuliia," women's coach Dominic Manilla said. "I don't know how she's done it, but she's put all that aside and taken a leadership role all season.
"She's our No. 1 player, our team captain. And she's had all of that on her shoulders."
Manilla said she was buoyed by the media attention she and men's player Yevhen Sirous, also from Ukraine, were able to generate in February when the war broke out.
A story in odusports.com resulted in coverage in The Virginian-Pilot and Daily Press as well as coverage from all three local TV stations. Some of the TV reports were carried in cities around the country.
Manilla said she took solace in knowing that she was able to tell her story and help bring attention to the Russian invasion.
"I think she was really touched by that. She got a lot of positive publicity for the Ukraine," Manilla said.
"A lot of her Ukrainian friends are active on social media. I think she found her calling, being one of the best players in the nation, and bringing attention to her country that way.
"She didn't just play for ODU or for herself this season. She did it for Ukraine."
Starodubtseva's parents – father Volodymir and mother Lidiia – nurtured her tennis game from the start.
"My dad wanted me to do some kind of sport as I grew up," she said. "So, I started playing tennis."
Her father runs a small business, and her mother is an entrepreneur who works with Yuliia's grandmother. "They are middle class, but middle class in Ukraine is not like middle class here or in Western Europe," she said.
A local tennis coach noticed that she was pretty good at age 10, and her parents agreed she should take the game seriously. She began playing in travel tournaments.
"But the financial part was hard," she said.
So instead of trying to go pro, she decided her best bet was to go to America, where she could earn a degree and play tennis at the same time.
Natalya Malenko, who was a senior on the 2019 ODU tennis team, told Manilla about Starodubtseva, and within a few months, she was headed to Norfolk.
She is dating Pearce Dolan, a student assistant on the men's team whom she met when he played tennis for ODU. She said Dolan has been a rock. She's not sure she would have made it through the season without him.
"He's helped keep me sane," she said.
She has excelled just as much academically as she has on the court. She will graduate with a master's degree in sport management next week and carries a 3.5 grade point average.
"She's really a conscientious student," said Amy Lynch, an athletic academic adviser, who at times also serves as a counselor of sorts for students facing hardships.
"She works so hard and is dedicated to every area of her life."
Asked how she did so under so much duress, Lynch paused for a second before answering.
"I can't even fathom what she's going through," she said. "She's just amazing."
Garriola looks like a football linebacker. At 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, he has muscular arms, but most of his power comes from his powerful back and shoulders, the product of hundreds of hours of hard work in the weight room.
He is seventh nationally with 18 home runs and earlier this season, became ODU's career home run leader. He has 42 homers with four weeks left in the season.
He was tied for the nation's lead in RBIs last season with 72.
Clearly, he's a star with a ton of pro potential.
Which begs the question, why was ODU the only Division I school to offer him a scholarship?
How did the dozens of West Coast schools that surely saw him in camps all pass him by?
ODU coach Chris Finwood says he doesn't know and doesn't care. When he and assistant coach Logan Robbins spied Gariolla at a tournament in Georgia, they were ready to offer him on the spot.
How he came to ODU is a testament to his parents for taking the time and money to send him to baseball camps. His father, Scott, is a retired FBI agent who now consults with producers of TV shows and movies about the FBI. His mother, Lisha, is a successful saleswoman.
Garriola's older brother, Frank, played at Hope International University.
Andy Garriola and his brother played travel baseball from an early age, spending much of their summers in Arizona and New Mexico.
Ole Miss offered him a preferred walk-on opportunity. But he turned that down once he visited ODU, the only school to offer a scholarship.
After seeing Garriola in Georgia, ODU's coaches asked him to take an official visit. Problem was, they weren't going to be home for a few days.
No worries, Garriola's father said. He and his son spent a few days in Virginia Beach waiting for Finwood and Robbins to return from the road. When Finwood showed up, they were already sold on Hampton Roads.
"Virginia Beach is a great place," Garriola said.
Robbins then sold them in ODU.
"Logan was definitely the best recruiter I talked to," Garriola said. "He really cares about his players. He said 'When you get here, if you want me to, I'll come out and throw to you at 1 a.m.'"
Garriola hasn't asked, "but if I did, I know he would do it."
Garriola hit .318 with 14 home runs and 53 runs scored, in addition to his 72 RBIs last season. His numbers are even better this season. He's hitting .367 with 18 home runs, 42 runs and 61 RBIs.
"Andy played such a huge role in our success last season," Finwood said. "He was the constant guy everyone had to look out for. He hit fourth or fifth for us all season."
Unfortunately for Garriola, he tailed off a bit in the late season.
"I think that cost him getting drafted," Finwood said. "He should have been drafted. But people only seem to remember what you did last."
Garriola didn't sulk. Instead, he mirrored Starodubtseva's work ethic and headed to the weight room and the batting cage, honing his game.
He spent much of the offseason working with Robbins in the batting cage, especially on avoiding the temptation to swing at off-speed pitches that curve out of the strike zone.
"I made an adjustment so that on two strikes, I choke up a bit," he said. "I've struck out less."
ODU lifts weights twice per week as a team but Garriola supplements that by working out in the Student Recreation Center. He also spends a ton of his spare time in the Paul Keyes Hitting Facility.
"He's definitely a better hitter than he was a year ago," Finwood said. "He's more patient. He's not chasing as many pitches out of the strike zone. He's put in a lot of time with Logan in the cage."
Garriola was a Freshman All-American his first season at ODU, but his adjustment to the East Coast wasn't all that smooth.
"Andy has grown up a lot since he got here," Finwood said. "Coach Robbins has really mentored him.
"He's a long way from home. He had a little culture shock as a freshman. But he overcame that.
"He's a fun-loving guy who just loves to play baseball. He's a great teammate. Everyone likes him."
When ODU's season ends, Garriola's career surely won't. Even if he's not drafted, he'll likely end up with a free-agent contract and in a minor league ballpark this summer.
He said he'd like to hold off on that as long as possible. ODU begins a crucial two-week stretch Friday when the Monarchs host Louisiana Tech at 6 in the first of three games with the Bulldogs.
Next weekend, comes a crucial three-game series at Southern Miss.
ODU has advanced from 134th in the NCAA College RPI to 63rd. The Monarchs need to get into the top 40 to be in the hunt for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. Winning two out of three the next two weekends is likely necessary for that to happen.
"The guys on this team, we all love each other," Garriola said. "We love to win. We love to compete. And we don't want the season to end anytime soon."
Starodubtseva will be at the Bud at noon on Sunday to throw out the first pitch in the final game of the weekend. She and Garriola will both be honored for being named athletes of the year.
She doesn't know a lot about baseball and as of Tuesday, had never picked up a baseball, much less tossed one 90 feet. Teammates jokingly told her to take her racket on the mound to hit the ball.
"I'm a little nervous about that," she said. "I hope I throw the ball well and bring the team luck."
Regardless of whether she nails the pitch, short hops it to catcher Brock Gagliardi or tosses it into the stands, she and Garriola deserve a standing ovation, and a grateful thank you from all of Monarch Nation.
Minium: ODU's Yuliia Starodubtseva and Andy Garriola Both Have Compelling Stories
