The first serve of the women’s tennis team’s fall season took place at Chicago State’s Cougar Invitational this past weekend.
“[There were] a lot of new faces for us, and it was good to kind of see where people line up and how they do under pressure,” head coach Matt Tyler said.
With a roster of 10 girls in comparison to the eight from the previous year, there wasn’t a set lineup. This was an opportunity for the tennis team to play top competitors and themselves, but also to understand each player’s strengths and weaknesses that can later determine their desired lineup.
“As far as lineup is concerned, things pretty much fell into place the way we expected,” Tyler said. “We have a great problem in really that all of our girls could beat each other on a given day.”
Sophomore Aimee Manfredo whizzed by in straight sets against teammate freshman Malini Wejesinghe to win the singles White Flight championship, leaving a lasting mark for Bradley on the last day of the invitational.
However, Bradley didn’t just come home with one championship. The doubles duo junior Ariel Dechter and senior Irinka Toidze finished the weekend with a 3-0 record. They won the flight championship with a 6-3 victory against the Bowling Green combo of Radeva and Witt on Sunday.
“While it cleared a few things up for us, there are still a lot of unknowns as far as where people are going to play,” Tyler said.
The Braves had a combined 7-8 record from Sunday’s six flights of final matches. Sophomores Alejandra de Lasa and Ashley Thai had a 6-4 win in the 7th place doubles match against Oakland.
Dechter won the Green Flight 3rd place match 6-0, surpassing freshman Emma Sodergren who won her match 6-1. Also placing in the Green Flight was Brandt, winning a 7th place match 6-2. Freshman Julie Martin placed 7th in the Black Flight match at 6-3 against Chicago State’s Leshia Gadacz.
“I felt that we played well, but we can get better,” Tyler said. “I think a lot of it was just first tournament jitters and working through some of those nerves.”
From this opening tournament, Bradley’s 10-woman roster has a combined 16-13 record in singles and a 6-8 record in double. The annual three-day Bradley Invitational will begin Sept. 25, taking place at the David Markin Courts. Times are to be determined.
“The great news is that I think we’re playing really high-level tennis,” Tyler said. “I think, hopefully, we carry that same momentum into our home invitational.”
