By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Thanksgiving always occurs on the last Thursday in November and Christmas always follows a month later on December 25.
And while not quite as predictable as the holidays, the men’s and women’s tennis teams of Old Dominion always seem to gather on the last Monday in April at the L.R. Hill Sports Complex to watch the NCAA Tournament show to see where they will be playing.
Both teams gathered Monday evening, as a group of ODU officials and fans watched and celebrated, to learn their postseason fates.
The ODU men, ranked 53rd nationally, got a good draw. They will take on Big South Champion Gardner-Webb in a first-round match Friday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
If the Monarchs win, they likely will take on defending national champion Wake Forest in the second round.
The ODU women drew what looks to be a tougher draw. Ranked 60th nationally by the ITA, the Monarchs take on Tennessee, ranked 17th nationally, in the first round in Durham, North Carolina. A victory would likely send the Monarchs into the second round against No. 15 seed Duke.
It is the seventh consecutive time that the ODU women have made the NCAA Tournament and the fourth bid in a row for the men.
ODU’s dominance in the sport was evident on a table next to the podium where more than a dozen Sun Belt and Conference USA regular-season and tournament championship trophies were lined up in two neat rows.
“That’s a pretty impressive set of hardware,” ODU Women’s Head Coach Dominic Manilla said with a smile.
The ODU men and women have won every Sun Belt Conference Tournament since the Monarchs joined the league four years ago. The women also claimed Conference USA titles in 2021 and 2022.
The 2020 tennis postseason was wiped out by the pandemic, but the ODU women won an at-large bid to the 2019 tournament.
There are many reasons for ODU’s dominance in tennis.
ODU has a long history of tennis success that dates back to the 1960s and 1970s. The late Dr. Jim Jarrett, ODU’s longtime director of athletics, was a former college tennis player and was married to Sugie Jarrett, a tennis pro.
He loved tennis and respected the sport’s long history of success at ODU.
The Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center, opened in 2007, is among the best among mid-major schoolsand is better than facilities at some power programs.
Both tennis programs have traditionally been funded at a high level.
And then there are the two Doms, Men’s Head Coach Dominik Mueller and Dominic Manilla.
“We’ve got two of the best tennis coaches in the world,” said Dr. Wood Selig, ODU’s director of athletics, who hired both Manilla and Mueller.
“That’s why we’re on the current run that we’re on.
“They’ve been able to take full advantage of our facilities, our institution, our geography and our commitment to tennis. They’ve maxed it out.”
Although some coaches in men’s and women’s programs consider their counterparts to be rivals, the Two Doms are the closest of friends.
“Our families spend time together,” Manilla said. “We’re in each other’s offices at least once a week.
“We root very hard for the men and they root very hard for us. I think that’s one of the reasons why we’re successful. We do everything we can to help each other.”
Mueller, the Frankfurt, Germany native, is in his tenth season at ODU, and may have his best team ever. The Monarchs finished 20-6 and dominated All-Sun Belt awards given out by league coaches. Mueller was named Coach of the Year, Adam Majchrzak Player of the Year, Zech Hamrouni Freshman of the Year and Piet Steveker Newcomer of the Year.
The Monarchs also claimed four of six awards given to ODU male athletes at the annual Golden Monarch Awards, with Majchrzak named Athlete of the Year, Hamrouni Freshman of the Year and Steveker Newcomer of the Year. Yanis Moundir, a senior from Switzerland who has played on all four Sun Belt champions, was presented the Mr. Monarch Award.
CLICK HERE to see story on 2026 Golden Monarch awards
“Talent wise, no, this is not our best team,” Mueller said. “But culturally and emotionally, yes. We’ve had teams with better talent but this team, honestly, just works harder. They care more about each other.
“Not that our other teams didn’t work hard and didn’t take care of each other because they did. But these guys, they just took it to another level.”
Manilla, an ODU graduate, is the son of a tennis pro who was raised in Nelson County just outside of Charlottesville. He walked on to the tennis team at ODU without a scholarship and won a starting position.
He worked briefly for a year at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy before being named the Monarchs’ head coach.
He has been named C-USA or Sun Belt Coach of the Year six of the last seven years, and was name the 2026 Sun Belt Coach of the Year. A year ago, he was named the state’s best coach in all sports by the Norfolk Sports Club.
Manilla named Virginia's best coach by Norfolk Sports Club
Competing in the modern world of the transfer portal and NIL has been difficult, he said.
“We try to be proactive in our decision making and find areas where we feel like we can win,” he said. “And we have a great donor base here at Old Dominion that supports us in ways that we need.
“And we have a history here. We’re academically successful and athletically successful that is something our donors and boosters can get behind and that players find attractive.”
The ODU women finished 13-5 against a difficult schedule that included victories over Power 4 schools Kansas and Wake Forest.
Lidiia Rasskouskaia, a senior from St. Petersburg, Russia, who has been a part of three Sun Belt champions, said Manilla is clearly the reason why ODU wins.
“He’s more than a coach,” she said. “He’s someone we can go to at any time with any problem we might have.
“He’s more like family than our coach.
“I was homesick as a freshman. I missed my family. But the team, it became my family. I love this place and our coach. He always takes care of us.”
Majchrzak, a sophomore from Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, said much the same of Mueller.
Majchrzak is the brother of Kamil Majchrzak, the No. 1 professional player in Poland. He often practiced with his brother and learned a lot about the game.
Yet he struggled last season as a freshman in part because of relocating to a foreign country.
He played in the 2025 Sun Belt Tournament doubles match, but then watched from the stands as the Monarchs swept the singles matches to claim the Sun Belt title.
“I remember last year looking from the stands in the Sun Belt final” Majchrzak said. “I was cheering for the guys and loving the atmosphere but wishing I could play.”
A year later, he defeated Troy’s Ausias Martin Melo, 6-0, 6-3, in No. 1 singles in the Sun Belt finals.
Going from a guy who watched singles play from the stands into the Sun Belt Player of the Year in a single season is a remarkable turnaround.
“I think Adam was a little overwhelmed with things, with the change that comes from moving to another country,” Mueller said. “He just wasn’t quite ready.
“But we saw the talent level right away.
“After the championship match last year, as we were walking out, I told him, "Next year, you’re going to be a big part of this team. And he was like, yes, I know".
Mueller, Majchrzak said, is both a taskmaster who demands hard work but also has a good ear and kind heart. He listens to his players and provides help when they need it.
“The thing that makes this program so good is consistency,” he said. “I know that sounds boring, but it’s true.
“We don’t have a lot of ups and downs. We are good in tough moments. That’s why I think we had some matches that we were losing, but in the end we won.
“This is a great place to play tennis. They play a great level of tennis and there are great facilities and academics here. Everything is here that someone needs to become a better person and a better athlete.”
The ODU women have had great success in the NCAA Tournament, winning first-round matches against South Carolina (2023 and 2024), Furman (2022) and Arkansas (2021).
The men are 0-3 under Mueller in first round matches.
Although unranked in the ITA Top 75, Gardner-Webb won eight of its last 10 matches to finish17-5.
“It’s about time,” Mueller said, “that we take the next step and win a match.”
Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
To see past stories from Minium, CLICK HERE