Men's Tennis Hosts Georgia State and Georgia Southern This Weekend

NORFOLK, Va. – The 71st-ranked Old Dominion men's tennis team hits the home courts of the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center for the first time in nearly a month this weekend hosting a pair of Sun Belt Conference opponents, including the defending conference champions.
 
On Saturday, they'll host Georgia State at 1 p.m. and then play host to Georgia Southern at 10 a.m. on Sunday.
 
"We are excited to host our first ever Sun Belt home matches. We saw last weekend how special conference matches are and this weekend won't be any different," said ODU Head Coach Dominik Mueller.

"Georgia State is the defending conference champion and they have a winning culture. They have a good mix of experience and new talent so we are expecting a hard fought match. Georgia Southern is riding a lot of confidence. They've won nine matches in a row and are ranked for their first time in program history. I'm sure we will see a lot of energy from them," he added.
 
Old Dominion (9-8, 1-1) comes into the weekend after splitting a pair in its opening Sun Belt Conference road trip as they fell 4-3 at South Alabama and defeated Troy 4-3. Codie van Schalkwyk leads in spring singles wins with nine, while Jakob Cadonau and Cosme Rolland De Ravel have eight. In doubles, Rolland De Ravel and Francois Le Tallec have eight wins this spring as a duo.
 
Georgia State (3-11, 0-1) will face James Madison on Friday before heading to Norfolk. The Panthers fell 4-1 to UTSA on March 17 and 4-0 to Georgia Southern the next day. Diogo Morais leads the team in singles wins this spring with six, while Gabriele Datei and Edward Tymes lead in doubles wins with three. The Panthers won the 2022 Sun Belt Conference title and lead the all-time series 5-3. ODU won the last meeting on March 5, 2021
 
Georgia Southern (12-3, 1-0) will take on JMU on Saturday before coming to ODU. The Eagles are currently ranked 69th nationally and are led by Pierre Mouesca with 11 wins this spring, while Judson Blair and Dimitris Paliouras have nine each. This will be the first-ever meeting with Georgia Southern who enter the weekend winners of their last nine matches.
 
The Monarchs are back in action on Wednesday hosting in-state rival Liberty at 3 p.m.