'ONE BIG FAIRYTALE': Stetson tennis team looks to continue historic season in NCAA tournament

Daliyah Hammoud feels like a star right now.

In the past two weeks, she and her Stetson University tennis team have enjoyed a newfound celebrity of sorts.

They returned to campus after their last road trip to a group of supporters rooting them on.

They’ve been stopped and congratulated by other students while walking to class.

They threw a party at DeLand's Parched Oak restaurant with friends and family.

It’s for good reason, though.

They’re 22-2 this season and riding a nine-match win streak. They sit at No. 61, a program record, in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.

And on April 24, for the first time since 1989, the Hatters won the ASUN Conference Championship. They will face No. 9 Miami in their first-ever NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship tournament appearance Friday.

“Honestly, it’s been one big fairytale for this team,” Hammoud, a redshirt sophomore and team captain, said.

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Stetson had been solid in recent years. Head coach Travis Sandlant took over in the fall of 2016 and steered the Hatters to winning records in 2018, 2019 and COVID-abbreviated 2020. But he and his team captains discussed how to boost the program to the next level.

The answer they came up with: culture.

Sandlant needed buy-in. He received it from some players in the past but said it never came as a collective unit.

The Hatters organized team bonding activities and spent as much time as possible together. Junior captain Noa Cohen estimates she is with her teammates for more than half of every day.

Gradually, through beach days, team meals and UNO card games, they jelled.

“They’re one family,” said Sandlant, who won ASUN Coach of the Year. “There’s no doubt … they’re making my job easier.”

They started hot, claiming seven consecutive victories to open the season before falling to South Florida Feb. 23. They tacked on four straight wins after that. But Sandlant can pinpoint the exact date — March 20 — he knew Stetson could be special this year.

With a 5-2 beating of North Florida, the six-time defending league champs, in the first conference match of the year, his team had arrived. It hadn’t topped the Ospreys since 2014.

“That’s the match that turned our program,” Sandlant said.

It hit differently than the winning seasons of the past.

“Until you feel the feeling of what we’ve had this year, you don’t really understand the limits of where you can go,” Sandlant said. “In previous years, we might’ve felt, ‘Yeah, we’ll compete, but maybe we’re not favored in that spot.’ It’s the belief that everybody can get the job done in their spot on that day. I think that’s the key.”

Even the Hatters admit they don’t know the true limit of where they can go yet.

They lost only one regular-season match after the North Florida matchup, earning a first-round bye in the conference tournament. In the semifinals, they encountered North Florida again.

This time, they fell behind 3-1 but battled back and claimed the last three matches. Cohen sent her team to the finals with the deciding win.

In a similar position against Liberty the next day, she clinched the Hatters’ 4-2 victory and ushered in the team’s pandemonium.

“I don’t think I’ve ever lived something that strong,” Cohen said. “The emotion that went through me was completely crazy. I could see all the girls lining up next to me. Right before the match point, I looked them all in the eyes and could see passion and hope and belief in me. I was like, ‘OK, there’s no way I’m going to lose this match.’”

Now, Stetson will play the Hurricanes, its toughest challenge yet, at 1 p.m. Friday.

“We know that we’re going to face amazing players,” Cohen said. “We’re just going there, thinking we have nothing to lose.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Stetson University tennis team rides fairytale run into NCAA tournament