ROME, Ga. — With a young squad, starting three freshmen and a sophomore, the recipe remained the same and the end result is another league title for Old Dominion Women’s Tennis.
Freshman Ulyana Romanova won 6-1, 6-4 at No. 6 over Ellie Murphy as 66th-ranked Old Dominion defeated App State 4-2 to capture the 2024 Sun Belt Conference title on Sunday.
With the win, ODU (17-5) repeats as Sun Belt Champions and won a fourth straight league crown after capturing the 2021 and 2022 Conference USA titles. The Monarchs will find out their NCAA location and opponent on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
“Hats off to App State, they pushed us in all aspects today. Hats off to the new coaching staff there as they’ve created a heck of a rivalry in the conference. I’m excited to win another one with this squad,” said ODU Head Coach Dominic Manilla.
App State (15-10) took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3. ODU responded with three straight wins in singles. Kira Matushkina started with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Naledi Manyube at No. 5 to even the match. Alexandra Viktorovitch gave ODU a 2-1 lead after a 6-1, 6-2 win over Taya Powell at No. 2. Lidiia Rasskouskaia won 7-5, 6-0 at No. 4 over Maggie Pate to take a 3-1 advantage.
After a win by App State at No. 1, Romanova got the clincher at No. 6 for the fourth title in a row for the Monarchs.
Coach Manilla was very proud of how his young Monarchs responded with another undefeated regular season in league play and tournament title. “I think everyone in the league has studied and familiar with us. They know we took some hits in the portal and I think people were a little unknown what we were going to go through losing what we did. This team responded with three freshman and a sophomore and delivered another title. Hats off to this group to come in to fill the shoes so well of the groups that played before them. I couldn’t be prouder,” he said.
