Happy Wednesday Monarchs. Nothing like a little mid-week sweet treat!

On Tuesday, the Monarchs got that sweet treat on the hard courts and followed it up with a little thriller on the diamond later in the evening.

We’ll recap all the action in today’s Brew! Check it out below!

🎾 How Sweet It Is!
⚾️ Don’t Call It A Comeback
✍️ Max with Minium: Brotherly Love
👑 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 How Sweet She Is. Tuesday night in Stillwater, ODU’s Sofia Johnson may have been searching for a little sweet treat.

Johnson earned that sweet treat after become the second ODU women’s tennis player in the past three years to reach the Sweet 16. With her win on Tuesday, the junior earned All-American status.

The London, England native, who entered the NCAA Singles Championship ranked 116th nationally, raced out to a 5-0 lead for the second day in a row in the third set and defeated 98^th -ranked Andjela Skrobonja of San Diego State 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 at the Greenwood Tennis Center on Tuesday afternoon.

With her two wins thus far in the tournament, she earns the fourth ITA Singles All-American honor since 2000 for Old Dominion.

🎾: The Full Recap

🔼 Don’t Call It A Comeback. Ok, well, we guess you kinda have to call it a comeback.

This time of year, it’s all about strong pitching and clutch hitting and that’s exactly what the ODU baseball got in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament en route to a thrilling 3-2 win over South Alabama.

Vincent Bashara and Jacob Gomez allowed just six hits and struck out 11 to key the victory. Gomez tossed 4.2 shutout innings of relief and struck out six to pick up the win.

Maverick Stallings continued his torrid pace at the plate, launching a game-tying two-run HR in the bottom of the fifth, while Jake Ticer roped an RBI single in the following inning to provide the scoring for the Monarchs.

⚾️ Game 1 Recap
🔢: Inside the Boxscore

🔼 Raging Waters. It may be a small state, but it’s produced a big impact on the ODU baseball program.

Delaware native and junior outfielder Luke Waters has been a key cog for the Monarchs this season and earlier this week, he was recognized for his performance earning a spot on the All-Sun Belt Second Team.

A junior from Laurel, Delaware who started all 53 games in right field for the Monarchs (29-24, 15-15 Sun Belt) this season, Waters leads the team in batting average (.320), slugging percentage (.522), and hits (65). He’s also ODU’s second-best home run hitter with 10 on the year. His other 2024 totals include one triple, nine doubles, 32 runs, 39 RBIs, 21 walks and 18 stolen bases on 23 attempts.

Heading into the conference tournament, Waters has tallied 20 multi-hit games and eight multi-RBI games, had a seven-game hit streak and a nine-game reached-base streak.

⚾️: More On Waters’ Award-Winning Season

✍️ MAX WITH MINIUM: FROM NAMBIA TO NORFOLK

The success of Codie and Connor van Schalkwyk on the court has been well-documented and put on display on a national stage.

Where did that success start? How was the brotherly bond built?

In the latest edition of Max with Minium, we get to see how a family bond and tennis success was built and arrived in Norfolk from the small African country, Nambia.

🤔 MONARCH TRIVIA

With Sofia Johnson’s victory on Tuesday, she became the third Monarch since 2000 to earn All-American status at the NCAA Singles Championship.

Who were the other two Lady Monarchs to earn that status since 2000?

Got a guess?

Scroll down to the bottom of this email and see if you had the right answer!

👑 JOIN THE TEAM

Our friends at Atlantic Orthopaedic Specialists has been serving Hampton Roads for over 100 years and is proud to be the team physicians for ODU Athletics.

With 4 convenient locations, 24 physicians, eight orthopaedic specialties, and 4 walk-in clinics—Atlantic Orthopaedics Specialists is the largest, most comprehensive orthoapedic practice in our region.

📬 SHARE THE BREW

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Simply forward them this email and they can sign up to receive the brew by clicking the link below to subscribe. The Brew is sent every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and is completely free!

📅 WHAT’S ON TAP?

Wednesday, May 22nd
🎾 Women’s Tennis at NCAA Singles Championship (Stillwater, Okla.)
⚾️ Baseball vs. #21 Louisiana @ 5pm
(Sun Belt Conference Tournament - Montgomery, Ala.)

Thursday, May 23rd
🎾 Women’s Tennis at NCAA Singles Championship (Stillwater, Okla.)
⚾️ Baseball at Sun Belt Tournament @ TBD (Montgomery, Ala.)

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: Nataly Cahana (2001 and 2022) & Yuliia Starodubtseva (2022)

🦁 Have a great day, y’all!