Bradley women’s tennis came out of the weekend with a split, but the bigger takeaway was resilience.
The Braves opened with a tough 4-3 loss to UIC on Saturday in a match that came down to missed chances in singles. Bradley started strong by taking the doubles point behind wins from the teams of Valeriia Ivanovskaia and Ann Hsieh, and Mariia Pukhina and Ruby Tseng.
That early edge gave BU momentum, but UIC flipped the match by winning four of the six singles courts. Bradley got key singles wins from Tseng and Anna Belogliadova, but the Flames were simply deeper across the lineup and won the tighter swing matches. The biggest turning point was at No. 3 and No. 5 singles, where Bradley pushed both matches deep but couldn’t close.
Sunday looked like it might head the same direction when Valparaiso grabbed the doubles point, putting Bradley in an early hole. This time, though, the Braves responded instead of fading.
That response started with Tseng, who delivered one of the most important wins of the day with dominant 6-1 and 6-2 set performances. From there, Bradley’s toughness showed up in the matches that mattered most. Ivanovskaia, Pukhina and Belogliadova all battled back to win in three sets, which proved the difference in the 4-3 win. Bradley didn’t overpower Valpo; they outlasted them.
That’s why the weekend split happened: against UIC, Bradley couldn’t finish enough of the close ones. Against Valpo, they did.
Tseng and Belogliadova were especially huge across the weekend, each picking up important singles victories, while Bradley showed that it can stay competitive even when doubles doesn’t go its way.
The Braves now head into a three-match homestand with some momentum and a clear formula: survive the grind, and the results will follow.
