Women’s Tennis Makes First Road Trip to Old Dominion

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women’s tennis team (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten) is set for its first road contest of 2026 against Old Dominion (0-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) on Wednesday, February 4. First serve is scheduled for 10 a.m. from the Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center in Norfolk, Virginia. 

The Nittany Lions return to action for the first time since January 18 after having to withdraw from last week’s ITA Kickoff Weekend event at the University of North Carolina due to travel constraints with the winter storm.

  

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT 

• Penn State began the 2026 spring season with two emphatic victories on January 18. The Nittany Lions swept Villanova by a 7-0 margin before closing the day with a 6-1 result against Saint Francis. 

• Freshman Ansley Cox took home a singles and doubles win in every match, good for a perfect 4-0 record. Cox paired with junior Jordina Cegarra in doubles, besting the Wildcats’ Miriam Gondorova and Lauren Monti, 6-0, on court three and the Red Flash’s Kelly Duwuona and Gabriela Almanza, 6-3, on court two. On the singles side, the Vestavia, Alabama native took down Villanova’s Riley Cicero, 6-0, 6-3, on court six before a 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 result against Saint Francis’ Helena Lynn on court four. 

• Junior Maelie Monfils worked out of the top spot in both singles and doubles against Villanova. The tandem of Monfils and senior Olivia Dorner defeated Emily Callahan and Maggie Gehrig, 6-1, before the Paris, France native earned a 6-0, 7-6 (7-2) win over Olivia Corcoran.  

• Dorner was joined by fellow senior Maiko Uchijima and sophomore Patricia Grigoras as winners of singles matches in both duals of the doubleheader. Dorner earned hers on courts five against VU and three against SFU with Uchijima on courts two and one and Grigoras at three and two.  

• Sophomore Maria Daciana Ciubotaru and Cegarra also won singles matches with Ciubotaru grabbing hers against the Wildcats on court four and Cegarra securing it on court five against the Red Flash. 

ACROSS THE NET 

• Old Dominion recently had its first official match of 2026, a 4-3 road defeat at the hands of Maryland on January 30. The Monarchs won the doubles point before dropping four consecutive singles matches. The team went on to take two singles wins after the dual was decided. 

• Before that, Old Dominion last played at the Michigan Hidden Duals from January 16-18 after a January 24 match with Mississippi State was canceled due to the winter storm. 

• At the Michigan Hidden Duals, ODU competed against No. 10 Ohio State, No. 13 Michigan and Xavier, going 9-12 in singles and 3-6 in doubles. Of note, Kira Matushkina took down Michigan’s No. 3 Piper Charney in three sets on the second day, earning Sun Belt Singles Player of the Week for her performance. The pairing of Marina Markina and Uladzislava Manzhos earned the Sun Belt Doubles Team of the Week as well. 

• Victoria Matasova checks in at No. 56 in the ITA singles rankings, owning a 9-5 record during the 2025-26 campaign. In doubles, the Monarchs have two ranked pairs in No. 20 Lidiia Rasskouskaia and Ulyana Romanova and No. 66 Matushkina and Matasova. 

• Old Dominion is the defending Sun Belt Champions after boasting a 19-5 (11-0 Sun Belt) record in 2025. It was the team’s fifth-straight year winning the league. 

SERIES HISTORY 

• Sunday will mark the 21st meeting between Penn State and Old Dominion, which is the seventh-most contests among opponents outside the Big Ten Conference for the Nittany Lions. This is the fifth consecutive year Penn State and Old Dominion will face off. 

• PSU holds a slight edge in the series, entering this year’s dual with an 11-9 advantage. The two programs first met in 1979. 

• A year ago, Penn State won a thrilling 4-3 contest in Happy Valley. After taking the doubles point behind a court one victory from Dorner and Uchijima and a court two win by Cegarra and Grigoras, the team found themselves trailing 3-2 before back-to-back triumphs by Ciubotaru on court six and Yvonne Zuffova on court five within a few seconds sealed the win.  

• Last season’s victory marked the Nittany Lions’ first in the series since 2013, snapping a four-match slide. 

• The last matchup in Norfolk was a 4-0 win for ODU in 2024.