Bradley’s tennis team ended the fall season at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Regional Championships in Iowa City, Iowa, featuring 128 individuals last weekend.
In doubles competition on Thursday, the duo of senior Sandra Maletin and freshman Kirstin Hailey won their first match 6-0 against MVC rival Northern Iowa.
Sophomores Madalena Andrade and Maria Bezmenova also got off to a good start with a victory of 6-2 over a tandem from New Orleans.
Both duos dropped their second-round match to Kansas State, ending doubles competition for the Braves this fall.
In the singles competition on Thursday, Bezmenova had two stellar performances in her qualifying matches, earning her a spot in the field of 128. She defeated Zeyneb Sarioglan from Minnesota 6-2, 1-6, 10-8, and Malvika Shukla from the University of Colorado 6-2, 6-3. Senior Sandra Maletin received an automatic entry as the Braves’ top seed.
“Maria [Bezmenova] played outstanding, some of the best tennis I’ve seen her play; [she] had a couple of big wins,” head coach Matt Tyler said. “One most notably [was] the win against Minnesota [and] their No. 5 girl, who is a great player. So, for Maria to win that one was a huge boost of confidence for her; [she]was super happy with the way she played.”
In the round of 128 on Friday, both Maletin and Bezmenova fell in their first-round singles matches, wrapping up the individual season for the team this fall. Maletin fell to Lily Hutchings of Tulsa by a score of 2-6, 2-6, while Bezmenova fell to Florentine Dekkers of Kansas State 1-6, 2-6.
Both Maletin and Kinga Kovacs ended their collegiate career after this last tournament since they will be graduating in December. Maletin leaves the team fourth all-time in career singles wins with 72, just one shy of tying third place Teri Chen, while Kovacs finished her career with 13 wins.
“Both of them [Maletin and Kovacs] mean a lot to the program,” Tyler said. “Sandra [is] obviously …one of the best players that we’ve ever had in program history, and a great leader, too. Kinga [Kovacs] didn’t play in our lineup as much as we would have liked for her, but she is somebody that showed up on a daily basis with a great attitude, worked hard every single day and in the classroom was an absolute killer.”
Maletin still finds it hard to believe that her time at Bradley as a tennis player is over, but she is grateful for all of herover the last years.
“It was fun for the past four and a half years, to be honest,” Maletin said. “I couldn’t imagine myself in this position because I thought it would never end, but I finished my last match and [it] still doesn’t feel real.”
With a bittersweet taste in her mouth realizing she won’t be playing again for Bradley, Maletin believes the team is in good hands with very talented players like Hailey, and expects the team to have a future full of success in the next few years.
“I’m sure they will do great,” Maletin said. “I’m confident we have a lot of great players on the team. I mean, the new freshman [Hailey], I played doubles with her, I think she is amazing. She is pretty good and she is [a] lefty, which is even more beneficial because a lot of players don’t know how to play lefties.”
Over the offseason, Tyler wants the team to really understand the importance of practicing when they go home.
“The biggest thing for us is making sure that we have a good off-season, and not losing all the progress that I feel like we’ve made this fall,” Tyler said. “No steps back, just hopefully progressing forward for the next three months.”
The Braves open the spring season on Jan. 21 as they visit DePaul in Chicago.
