Junior Sandra Maletin and senior Natalia Barbery hold a handful of records at Bradley, but this is the first one they hold together.
On Tuesday, they broke the school record for most wins as a doubles team in a 7-0 rout of Western Illinois at the David Markin Tennis Courts. Their 43 wins beat out the previous record, which had stood since 1994.
Maletin wasn’t surprised when she heard the news.
“I’ve been playing with Natalia the last four years,” Maletin said. “I was excited, of course, but also … wasn’t surprised because we’ve clicked together since day one.”
Head coach Matt Tyler loves that the tandem gets to be atop the record books.
“I’m super excited for them,” Tyler said. “We’re always super happy when records fall and [we’re] very proud of everything they’ve done the past four years together.”
Sophomores Bozana Lojpur and Nikki Perlwitz also won the doubles set needed to clinch the point at No. 3, 6-2. The Braves have won four of the last five doubles points, including three straight. According to Tyler, getting back into competition has been key for their recent success in this category.
“A lot of it is just getting comfortable playing doubles again and getting back into the competition mode,” Tyler said. “Taking a year off, it takes some time to get back into the rhythm of things and remember how to work together as a team. I think we’ve finally gotten to that point and hopefully, it continues.”
The success carried over into singles, as the entire lineup won their matches to complete the sweep of the Leathernecks. This is the first time the Braves have swept back-to-back matches since Feb 21, 2015 when BU took contests against Western and Green Bay.
“I always tell the team that there’s no such thing as a bad Division I tennis team,” Tyler said. “Making sure that we have that game face on every time we go out and play [is important]. We’ve done a good job of doing that the past couple of matches and hopefully we can continue that trend for the rest of the season.”
With her victory Maletin has now won 12 straight sets at the No. 1 spot. She said she knew she would break records the moment she came on to campus.
“[Breaking records] was my goal, since day one,” Maletin said. “I worked a lot to get here and I think it’s paying off now.”
The Braves will look to keep up their hot streak against Eastern Illinois this afternoon at 3 p.m.
