The Bradley Braves tennis team traveled to Omaha, Neb., this past weekend for another set of matches after their 1-0 start to the spring season. Their second weekend of action didn’t provide as positive a result, losing to both Nebraska-Omaha and Creighton by a score of 6-1.
Matching up with Creighton on Saturday, the Braves struggled in their pursuit of a 2-0 start.
In doubles, the team of junior Madalena Andrade and sophomore Kirstin Hailey lost the opening set 6-1. Closing the doubles round was the freshman team of Madi Rogers and Mariia Pukhina who also lost their set 6-4, giving the doubles point to the Bluejays.
In the singles competition, Bradley didn’t do much better. Pukhina lost her first set 6-0 but competed stronger in her 6-4 second set loss. Freshman Anna Belogliadova stayed competitive, but wound up on the losing side of both sets 6-3, 7-5. Hailey unfortunately had similar results as her teammates, losing 6-2 and 6-4 while junior Maria Bezmenova got the first and only point of the weekend for the team with a 6-2 and 6-3 win.
Andrade lost both of her sets 6-0 then 6-3 while junior Alexandra Hildreth made her first appearance, but lost both sets 6-1 and 6-2.
“We felt good because our team is a very friendly and supportive environment that still had hope for the new match in Omaha,” Pukhina said about the team’s morale heading into their second matchup of the weekend.
Facing off against the Mavericks, Bradley started off much stronger in doubles, as .Hailey and Andrade shutout their competition for a 6-0 victory. However, Belogliadova and Bezmenova suffered a heartbreaking 7-5 loss to even the teams. To finish off the doubles sets, Pukhina and Rodgers competed but lost the difference maker 6-4.
“Our doubles play needs to improve, especially against Creighton,” Braves’ head coach Matt Tyler said. “If we get the doubles point versus Omaha, that changes everything. One more doubles win versus Omaha swings the tides our way. Doubles play is certainly something we are going to try and improve at practice going into Thursday.”
Unfortunately for the Braves, Omaha’s singles matches looked similar to the ones against the Bluejays. Pukhina lost both of her sets 6-3 and 6-0. Then, Belogliadova also lost her sets 6-1 and 6-4. Hailey went to three sets for her singles match, 6-4 loss, then 6-4 win, but it ended with a tragic 10-7 loss during the third set.
The team had one heartbreaking loss after another, with Bezmenova also going three sets. The junior started with a 6-4 loss, then a dominant 6-0 win, but a 7-6 loss in the third set. Andrade also went three sets but the third time’s the charm for her, losing 6-4 but then winning 6-2 with a statement win of 10-6 to top it all off. Lastly, Hildreth lost both of her sets in close fashion, 6-4 and 6-3.
“First you have to give a lot of credit to the opponents. They played well and improved over the last couple years. you don’t like to lose but we played against two great teams,” Pukhina said.
“I think it was good practice for me as an individual, I’m enthusiastic,” she added “I had a good game versus Creighton. All the games were very tight. We had the chance. We need to work on our doubles but our singles are very strong.”
The Braves’ next match will come at St. Thomas on Saturday at 11 a.m.
