ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603250030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: |By DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
THE LADY MONARCHS will meet the Cavaliers in today's Sweet 16 matchup in Charlottesville.
In the five seasons since Virginia and Old Dominion last played in women's basketball, there has been little clamoring for a revival.
There is now.
A semifinal meeting between the Cavaliers and Lady Monarchs in the NCAA East Regional has caused many to wonder why their regular-season series was discontinued.
``She doesn't want to come to our house,'' said ODU coach Wendy Larry on Monday night following the Lady Monarchs' 72-66 victory over Toledo in the second round.
Larry was referring to 19th-year Virginia coach Debbie Ryan, who seemed genuinely surprised when the issue was raised later in the week.
``We just have not renewed the contract,'' Ryan said. ``I'm not saying it's not going to be renewed - it probably will be in the near future - but there are a lot of pressures that come to bear on you when you're in the national spotlight.''
Old Dominion was once the dominant program in women's basketball, with three national championships between 1979-85, but it has been more than a decade since the Lady Monarchs have qualified as a national power.
Nobody can question ODU's credentials this year. The Lady Monarchs are 29-2, with the only losses to No.1 seeds Stanford and Tennessee, and carry a 19-game winning streak into today's 2 p.m. meeting with Virginia (25-6).
Top-seeded Tennessee (28-4) will meet No.4 Kansas (22-9) at 11:30 a.m. in the first semifinal at University Hall. It is the 16th consecutive appearance in the Sweet 16 for the Lady Vols, while Kansas is playing in a regional semifinal for the first time.
Virginia, seeded third, will wear its blue road uniforms and sit on the visitor's bench at University Hall for the first time in Ryan's memory. Old Dominion, which outscored the opposition by nearly 29 points per game, was seeded second.
``Gosh, I'd love to have 8,000 people cheering for us,'' said Larry, in her ninth season as Old Dominion's head coach, ``but I'd be happy to have 1,000. They only gave us 200 tickets and they went real fast.''
Larry had softened her stance by the time she arrived at University Hall and did not challenge Ryan's statements that Virginia is not opposed to playing the Lady Monarchs.
``This is something [play] we've done in the past and we've done it on a pretty regular basis,'' Larry said. ``We'd like to be able to work something out, but there obviously are a lot of contractural issues.
``I think it would be good for us to do that. We're at a point now where Old Dominion has come back onto the national scene and we certainly would enjoy a healthy rivalry with Virginia.''
The teams played every year between 1973-91 - in four of those years they played twice - with the Lady Monarchs winning 12 of 13 games during one stretch. However, UVa has won five of the past six meetings.
In 1991, when Virginia went to the women's final four, the Cavaliers won 90-59 over an ODU team that finished 5-21. At that point, the Lady Monarchs were no longer competitive with UVa.
``There wasn't a whole lot of clamoring then to get me to play them,'' Ryan said. ``Believe me! There wasn't even a request the next year. It was never an issue till it came up the other day.
``There's a lot of pressure for us to play people. Penn State doesn't understand why we don't play them every year. JMU wants to play us every year. We want to play Richmond or VCU, [but] you can't play a 45-game schedule.''
While there is a perception that the ODU women's program has dropped off, the Lady Monarchs have won 20 or more games in seven of the last eight seasons, including the past five. They were 25-6 and 27-6 the past two years.
``Being the basketball junkie that I am, I'm familiar with the Old Dominion tradition,'' UVa junior Tora Suber said. ``But, honestly, I hadn't heard much about them the first two years. Maybe that's my fault.
``It's funny because this is the first I've heard about coaches refusing to play each other. But, that shouldn't be a huge factor because we're playing. And, we're playing in the Sweet 16.''
Suber will be giving up 4 inches to 5-11 ODU point guard Ticha Penicheiro, part of an international contingent that includes her teammate on the Portuguese National Team, Mery Andrade, and Clarisse Manchanguana from Mozambique.
Penicheiro was the Colonial Athletic Association player of the year, Andrade was rookie of the year and Machanguana, a 6-foot-5 center, was tournament MVP. All three return next year, as does No.2 scorer Nyree Roberts.
``I'll drop a game on our schedule to play Virginia and I'm not sure why that hasn't happened,'' said Larry after a formal news conference had ended. ``There's no question that Old Dominion would like to play Virginia. I've never wavered from that.''
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Coach Wendy Larry has led Old Dominion to a 29-2by CNBrecord and a Sweet 16 date with Virginia today.