Minium: ODU Men's Tennis Team Overcame A Ton of Adversity and Won a Sun Belt Conference Title

NORFOLK, Va. – Last week was bittersweet for Nicola Vidal and his Old Dominion University men's tennis teammates.
 
The week began with a trial in Norfolk Circuit Court for the man who rammed a car into Vidal and nearly killed him 18 months ago in a 7-11 parking lot.
 
Vidal and his ODU teammates had stopped to get some soft drinks and chips to celebrate a great performance in a fall match earlier that day. Vidal watched as a man turned on his car, put it in drive and rammed into him, trapping him against a cement trash can.
 
He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. It was at the trial that Vidal finally met the guy who likely saved his life.
 
Perrin Priest, an oysterman from the Eastern Shore and a Norfolk native, came upon the scene with Vidal laying on the ground, surrounded by teammates unsure what to do. Vidal had a broken leg and his knee was blown out, but most troubling was the blood gushing out of his knee, as Priest described it, "like a beer tap."
 
The crash had severed Vidal's femoral artery.
 
Priest quickly took control and had he not quickly taken off his belt and applied a tourniquet to the leg, Vidal likely would have died, doctors and his surgeon at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital told head coach Dominik Mueller.
 
Finally, on Saturday, the week ended on a high note as the Monarchs routed James Madison, 5-2, at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center and claimed a share of the Sun Belt Conference regular-season title.
 
It was an amazing comeback for a team that has endured so much adversity, a run of hardships that only began with the injury to Vidal.


ODU head coach Dominik Mueller watches his Monarchs dispatch JMU, 5-2.  

Teammates Francois Le Tallec (Paris, France) and Luca Maldoner (Innsbruck, Austria), later injured their knees. And Yevhen Sirous, a native of Ukraine, suffered the entire spring season a year ago while his family hid in a bunker in Kharkiv as it was being shelled by Russian artillery.
 
Injuries are one thing, but a war is another.
 
So is a life-threatening injury inflicted by a driver that nearly killed a teammate.
 
Le Tallec said it left he and his teammates in shock and even now, is a difficult memory to revisit.
 
Winning the Sun Belt title – the Monarchs take on JMU again Thursday in the Sun Belt Tournament – in their final match at the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center was a memory Vidal said the six seniors on this team will never forget.
 
"It was an unbelievable achievement," he said. "It shows how well we reacted to adversity.
 
"All we went through is going to help us not only in sports but in our lives in general."


"We will always be close," Nicola Vidal said of he and his ODU teammates.

Brandon Perez (Caracas, Venezuela), Oliver Tobisch (Roedermark, Germany) and Younes Lalami (Casablanca, Morocco) also played in their final home match.
 
Vidal said in some ways the trial was frustrating. As a witness, he was unable to be in the courtroom except when he testified. And he went into the trial wanting to hear an explanation as to why the man ran into him with his car.
 
The man pleaded not guilty and was silent during the sentencing phase of the trial, which defendants often apologize to victims.
 
"Unfortunately, I did not get an answer," he said. "But I am at peace. It is what it is. It's over and I'm happy about that.
 
"For me it was all about getting justice. The jury did its job and I think justice was done and in my opinion, that's all that matters."
 
Vidal made a remarkable recovery – doctors didn't know right away whether he would walk again, much less play tennis. He credits Rachelle Bowman, ODU's athletic trainer, for working overtime to help him return.
 
He missed an entire year of practice, and the knee, while healthy, "is still not 100 percent. The leg feels different than it did before."


Perrin Priest with Nicola Vidal. 

Mueller said that Vidal and the others recovering from knee injuries have steadily improved and by the end of the season, were playing their best tennis.
 
Priest arrived shortly after the match ended and he and Vidal hugged for a long time. Priest said they have a bond that will never be broken,
 
"I really wanted to be here," Priest said. "I'm so glad they won a championship today. That's great.
 
"You're never prepared for a situation like the one I ran into. I don't know why I was so calm, but I was. Afterwards, I was pretty shaken up. It was a terrible thing to see."
 
Mueller beamed when he saw Priest.
 
"Without him, I don't think Nico has a senior day today," Mueller said. "That's a dramatic statement but it's probably true.
 
"To come here for Senior Day, that means a lot to us."

Priest still wears the belt that he used as a tourniquet and when he tied up Vidal's leg, it left a mark on the belt. Vidal asked to see how large the tourniquet was and when Priest took off the belt and showed him, it appeared to be about half the size of his thigh.
 
"You put that around my leg?" he said.
 
Losing six seniors is a huge blow, but rather than rebuild, Mueller seems to be reloading.
 
"We're bringing back a lot of good young guys and we're adding a really strong freshmen class," Mueller said.
 
He has four outstanding underclassmen in Jakob Cadonau (Kleinostheim, Germany), Yanis Moundir (Lucenre, Switzerland), Codie van Schalkwyk (Windhoek, Namibia) and Cosme Rolland De Ravel (Fontaine Les Dijon, France).
 
De Ravel is 22-9 and 7-1 in Sun Belt matches as a freshman and was second-team All-Sun Belt in singles. Cadonau, a standout transfer from Ole Miss, was named the Sun Belt's Newcomer of the Year.
 
ODU has also signed two outstanding recruits in Aryen Saleh, one of the top juniors in Germany, and Connor Van Schalkwyk, Codie's younger brother.
 
Mueller says van Schalwkyk may be the highest-rated recruit he's ever signed and that Saleh was a top five recruit in Germany.

 
ODU's Brandon Perez celebrates. 

But that's next season. There is still unfinished business for the Monarchs – winning the Sun Belt Tournament.
 
"We still have work to do," Vidal said. "This wasn't the end of the season.
 
"But for a last home match, it was the perfect way to end things."
 
He said the other seniors are more than just teammates. They are like family.
 
"For five years we shared everything, every day, basically 10 hours a day, between practices, the training room, matches and traveling," he said.
 
"We are very close friends. With some teams, people will come and go and you lose touch. But not with these guys. We will always be close."

Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him  on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.