Dropping its sixth straight match, Bradley tennis fell short this past week in a non-conference 7-0 loss to Saint Louis and suffering a 4-0 defeat in the conference finale against Belmont.
In both losses, Bradley (7-14) was unable to claim the doubles point which continues to elude the team this season.
Starting with the season finale on Sunday, Bradley welcomed Belmont, who sought to play a clinch match due to the travel accommodations. This situation caused several unfinished matches.
“We decided to play to clinch [because] Belmont had a six-hour drive home,” Braves’ head coach Matt Tyler said. “Usually in tennis you play until someone gets to four; that’s what we did versus Belmont.”
In the doubles round, Bradley junior Madalena Andrade and sophomore Kirstin Hailey dropped their match 6-3 while freshman Anna Belogliadova and junior Maria Bezmenova followed in their footsteps with a similar 6-3 defeat. With the doubles point already in hand, Belmont took the 1-0 lead as junior Alex Hildreth and freshman Madi Rogers’ match – which the Braves held a 5-4 advantage – was declared unfinished.
Only needing three wins to take the match, Belmont reached the goal, winning without the Braves recording a point. Belogliadova started her first set with a competitive 6-3 defeat, but the junior returned to get shut out in her second set 6-0.
Andrade started off her first set the same, losing 6-3. Fighting to push the match to three sets, the junior fell just inches short, dropping an even more competitive second set, 7-5. Hildreth, on the other hand, narrowly dropped her beginning set 7-5 but was ousted in the second set 6-3, handing the clincher win to Belmont.
The 4-0 loss to Belmont followed a 7-0 sweep from Saint Louis who commanded the courts on Bradley’s senior day. As the team celebrated Hildreth and Andrade, the results received the short end of the stick.
Kicking off the action with the doubles competition, the Billikens began the blitz with a 6-3 win over Bradley’s pairing of Belogliadova and Bezmenova. Saint Louis secured the doubles point with the 6-1 win over Hildreth and Pukhina. Hailey and Andrade’s match went unfinished.
The singles competition featured some close games, but not close enough. Belogliadova set an unfortunate tone, losing 6-1, 6-0 followed by Pukhina who kept her matches closer, losing 7-5, 6-4. Hailey doubled up on her set scores but still lost both 6-4.
Bezmenova won her first set 7-6 as the Braves searched for solid ground, but fell 7-6 in the return set. With the deciding third set following, Bezmenova got behind and couldn’t toe the line, losing 10-4. Andrade lost both her sets 6-4, 6-2 as Hildreth was held in check by two 6-1 defeats.
“It’s tough, I think you have to look at individual results,” Tyler said. “I think we played Saint Louis really tough. In a few instances where certain points could have gone our way, results may vary with who won. So much of tennis is depth and how many good players you have on your team.”
Just barely eking out a top-six finish, the Braves will be slotted as the final team in the MVC Championships this weekend in Normal, Illinois. Bradley will face a familiar foe in the third-seeded Bruins.
That match is expected to begin today around 2 p.m. with the winner getting second-seeded Drake the following day.
