NORFOLK, Va. — It's fitting that the Old Dominion University women's tennis team joining the men's squad for this year's NCAA Tournament from Raleigh, North Carolina. Both face off against South Carolina and both are coming off consecutive Sun Belt Tournament titles.
Monarch fifth year senior Alex Viktorovitch has enjoyed some good times with the women's program. The native of Jonkoping, Sweden, has been apart of four conference titles with the Monarchs in two different conferences. ODU went back to back while they were in Conference USA and then the same occurred in their first two years in the Sun Belt.
"Four years is a long time in this age especially", she said. "I feel like I have a role to fulfill."
Head coach Dominic Manilla feels a standard has been established within the program and the results speak for themselves. He was a little surprised seeing their last four tournament titles on a table while waiting recently for the NCAA selection show.
"Looking at those trophies was very cool", Manilla said. "It's the first time I've seen them on the table like that and it's like wow that's a lot. I feel fortunate that I've been head coach for a lot of those trophies."
As for Viktorovitch and her squad join the men in the upcoming tournament, she feels both teams feed off each other.
"We write in our group chat. Watch each other's matches so I just feel like we're very friendly with each other and try to support each other as much as we can."