Lady Monarchs Plan To Recapture Throne Three-Time Champ Old Dominion Ranked No. 2

They were the queens of women’s college basketball, three-time national champions led first by Nancy Lieberman, then Anne Donovan.

And even after both stars headed off to basketball’s Hall of Fame, Old Dominion won it all again, in 1985.

But then, the Lady Monarchs all but disappeared.

Almost annual trips to the NCAA Tournament ended in the early rounds, and as coach Wendy Larry says, most folks probably figured Old Dominion had gone “back down the street where the little schools go.”

Not quite.

It has taken more than a decade, but the Lady Monarchs are back, ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press poll and waiting for No. 1 to fall.

Only Connecticut stands between the Lady Monarchs and the top. And if Old Dominion’s fans had their way, they’d pencil the unbeaten Huskies in for the next available date at their 4,855-seat Field House on the Norfolk, Va., campus.

The Field House, opened in 1970, is a gym. The seats are bleachers, the walls cinder-block, and the fans don’t care. They’ve filled the place twice this season, and each time raucously cheered the Lady Monarchs on to key victories.

On Dec. 17, Old Dominion dominated top-ranked Stanford 83-66 before 4,855. As the clock wound down, the crowd chanted, “We’re No. 1!”

It was the fourth time a No. 1 team had come to Norfolk, and the third time it left with a loss. But it hadn’t happened since 1984.

Three weeks later, defending national champion Tennessee came calling. The Lady Vols had beaten Old Dominion 15 consecutive times and had a 10-point lead with 15:36 left before the Lady Monarchs surged for an 83-72 victory.

Larry, in her 10th season as coach at her alma mater, said the comeback showed her that this year’s team has something her previous Lady Monarchs squads haven’t. It started with a 14-point blitz after a timeout.

“They really did prove to me that they are a team with goals and a mission in mind,” Larry said. “In the past, a team that I’ve coached here, going down 10 against Tennessee, pretty much would have folded the tent.

“When we went into the huddle in that timeout, you could tell on their faces that the game was far from over. They knew they could come back.”

Donovan, now in her second season as head coach at Colonial Athletic Association rival East Carolina, noticed the difference when the Lady Monarchs came to Greenville, N.C., on Jan. 5. Old Dominion won 74-36, its 77th victory in 78 CAA games and third in a row against Donovan’s team.

“They got their education last year, and I think you can see it in the team this year,” said Donovan.

In 1991, the Lady Monarchs finished 5-21, a harsh reality for a school with so many national championship banners hanging in its gym. ODU won back-to-back titles in 1979-80, then again in 1985 when coach Marianne Stanley had neither Lieberman nor Donovan but still went 31-3.

Annual NCAA Tournament berths since haven’t cut it, Larry said.

“For some programs, it’s a great success story to go to the tournament every year and go to the first and second rounds. Some people keep their jobs for 35, 40 years that way. Here’s a different story. You win a national championship and you’re driven to win one over and over and over again.”

Overseas recruiting brought Ticha Penichiero from Figueira da Foz, Portugal, and Clarisse Machanguana from Maputo, Mozambique. Chances taken on lightly recruited Nyree Roberts, from Jersey City, N.J., and Aubrey Eblin, from Williamsport, Ohio, also have paid off.

Penichiero, the point guard, averages about 11 points, eight assists, 4-1/2 steals and countless comparisons to Lieberman, the player known as “Lady Magic.” Machanguana scores nearly 19 per game, Roberts almost 15.

Eblin, whose three 3-pointers in a span of 1:48 forced Stanford to abandon its preferred zone defense, did it again against Tennessee. Hampered by a sprained ankle, she connected twice from downtown during the comeback.

The Lady Monarchs needed no such heroics against East Carolina, but Donovan said she thinks the program may have come full circle.

“I’m pulling hard to see them in Cincinnati” at the women’s Final Four, Donovan said.