NORFOLK, Va. -- The Intercollegiate Tennis Association revealed its rankings after the fall season on Wednesday and Old Dominion men made quite a splash in the doubles rankings.
On the strength of their run to the ITA Fall Nationals finals earlier this month, Connor van Schalkwyk and Codie van Schalkwyk finished the fall season ranked sixth nationally. The brothers finished the fall with a 7-2 mark.
This marks the highest ranked doubles team under head coach Dominik Mueller and the second highest in school history. In 2003, Zoltan Csandi and Izak van der Merwe reached #3 in the country after reaching the finals of the ITA National Indoor Championship.
At the ITA Fall Nationals, the van Schalkwyks defeated teams now ranked 43rd from University of the Pacific, 19th from Pepperdine and 7th from TCU, before falling to the now second-ranked team from Michigan State in the finals.
Cosme Rolland De Ravel and Jakob Cadonau earned an automatic bid to the ITA Fall Nationals by winning the ITA Atlantic Regional last month and now are ranked 33rd nationally heading into the spring. The duo went 5-0 in the regional with their toughest match coming in the semifinals against the van Schalkwyks winning in three sets.
"We have had several top doubles teams over the years that were nationally ranked and made runs at National tournaments. But being ranked Top 10 in any sport puts you into an elite league," said Mueller. "I'm so happy for Codie and Connor to achieve this milestone not only for themselves, but also our program. But let's not forget Cosme and Jakob. Any other year they would have been the highest ranked team in the conference at #33. They also had a tremendous fall and deserve this recognition. This should give us some nice momentum going into the Spring season."
Men's Tennis Earns Pair Of Doubles Top 35 National Rankings
