The Bradley tennis team hosted the Bradley Invitational at the Markin Tennis Courts. While the courts were hopping, the ball bounced the right way for the Braves.
Teams from Bradley, Cincinnati, DePaul, Northern Illinois, Saint Louis and Western Illinois battled on the courts for three days.
Bradley sophomore Sandra Maletin highlighted for the Braves as she won the top singles flight without dropping a single set. Sophomore Kinga Kovacs won the round robin tournament for fifth seed players.
Each year head coach Matt Tyler looks forward to hosting the Bradley Invitational and this year his team was more than up for the challenge.
“We love hosting,” Tyler said. “It is nice to showcase our facilities and have local support.”
Tyler was proud of his team’s overall performance as well as the persistent fight they showed throughout the tournament.
“I believe we learn more from our losses than we do from our wins,” Tyler said. “These matches help us understand what we need to do to do well at conference.”
Bradley will spend the next two weeks assessing their game and what they need to focus on in practice before the Individual MVC Championship.
Tyler believes that to reach the ultimate goal of winning an individual championship his players must beam with confidence and play consistently well.
“We need to walk out on the court and know we are going to win and a lot of that comes from [winning] these matches at home,” Tyler said. “We also need to be more consistent and cannot give up free points on easy unforced errors.”
Freshman Bozana Lojpur claimed third place in the Braves Bracket followed closely by junior Natalia Barbery in fifth. Senior Malini Wijesinghe tied for third in the Kaboom! Bracket while freshman Nikki Perlwitz took third in the red bracket and sophomore Victoria Gonzalez placed eighth.
Maletin said she is confident that her team will make noise at the conference tournament.
“I think we can win conference and I am really excited,” Maletin said. “We played so well this weekend and at Northern Illinois last weekend. We are practicing hard and conditioning each day.”
Maletin also said she believes that Tyler’s upcoming practice plan will prepare the whole team to compete hard during the conference tournament on Oct. 5.
“We are pushing each other and I believe in my teammates,” Maletin said.
The teams are off this weekend, but will be back in action at the MVC Individual Championships in Springfield, Missouri from Oct. 5-7.
