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WVU transfer Toidze adjusting to Bradley life

To say that junior women’s tennis player Irinka Toidze has come a long way from home would be an understatement.

Toidze hails from Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, a country that borders Turkey in the southwest and Russia in the northeast.

Peoria and Tbilisi are separated by more than 6,000 miles. This includes the entire Atlantic Ocean and most of Western Europe.

The distance between these cities is so large, it’s comparable to two coast-to-coast trips from one end of the United States to the other.

However, even 6,000 miles apart, Toidze can find even the slightest similarities between the two vastly different cities.

“[Tbilisi is] almost like the Bradley campus,” Toidze said of Tbilisi. “Everyone knows everyone. You’ll always find a mutual friend.”

The journey that Toidze has taken to get to the Hilltop is an unconventional and lengthy one, and she said she still struggles to find a median between the two countries she calls home.

“We have our own language [and] our own alphabet,” Toidze said. “Every time I come back here it’s like, what is going on? I have to get used to both countries.”

Toidze began her tennis career in the Republic of Georgia at the early age of seven. By age 12, she became a sensation.

Toidze ranked top five in the age groups of U-12, U-14, U-16 and U-18. In Europe, she ranked in the top 75 in the U-14 group, and top 150 in the U-16 group.

However, playing at that high of a level came with a price: one she couldn’t pay.

“I couldn’t afford that much traveling,” Toidze said. “From Georgia you have to travel…and airfare is really, really expensive. So I basically had to stop playing tournaments in Europe after that.”
Toidze was faced with a choice: give up the game she loves for studies, or find a way to do both at the same time. She chose the latter.

“I want to play tennis and study,” Toidze said. “Here [in America], you can get a scholarship [to play] and study at the same time.”

From Tbilisi she went to Morgantown, West Virginia, where she got a scholarship to play tennis for West Virginia University.

However, after two years with the Mountaineers, Toidze decided it was time for a change, and began to search for a better fit.

It was during an inquiry at Rutgers University when Toidze found a connection to Bradley: head coach Matt Tyler.

“I contacted [Rutgers’s] assistant, and actually their assistant is Matt’s sister,” said Toidze. “I looked up Bradley and talked to Matt when I visited, and I really liked it here.”

From her first day on campus, Toidze has impressed Tyler with just how well she adapted to a new scene.
“She came in and it was like an automatic fit,” Tyler said. “[She’s] good friends with the girls and seems to really have a good relationship with everybody on the team.”

Coming from West Virginia, Toidze played in the Big 12 Conference, which Tyler says is one of the toughest conferences in the nation.

He believes the competition she’s played and her skill will put her atop the MVC this year.
“One of her goals would be top of the conference,” Tyler said. “I have complete faith in the fact that she will be.”

Toidze will have a shot to prove herself at the MVC Individual Championships next weekend. This weekend, she and the team travel to Waterloo, Iowa for the UNI Invitational.

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