Bradley Tennis (3-3) tamed the Cougars this past weekend, dominating against SIU Edwardsville and Chicago State with 6-1 and 7-0 victories, respectively.
Senior Natalia Barbery was ruled out for Friday against SIUE due to injury, so freshman Victoria Sanchez-Bronzetti paired with junior Sandra Maletin at No. 1 doubles. The duo seemed to click, as they won their set along with freshmen tandem Maria Bezmenova and Juliana Martinez to clinch the doubles point for the Braves. The win was Martinez’s first at Bradley.
Freshmen proved to be the key to victory on Friday, as Sanchez-Bronzetti won her first singles match of the year at No. 3 and Bezmenova clinched the match for the Braves at No. 4. Junior Nina Marjanovic also picked up her first win of the year at No. 6 singles 4-6, 6-3, 10-4 to cap off a 6-1 victory for the Braves.
Bezmenova credits her team for the success she’s had so early in her career.
“[My team] taught me how to be friendly and how to play with the team,” Bezmenova said. “I have the best teammates and they taught me how to play together.”
Saturday was the same story as the Braves rolled over Chicago State, winning every match that wasn’t left unfinished. Sanchez-Bronzetti and Maletin shined once again at No. 1 doubles in Barbery’s absence, winning 6-4, and sophomores Bozana Lojpur and Nikki Perlwitz won at No. 2 doubles 6-2.
All but one of Bradley’s singles matches on Saturday ended in a straight set victory, with Sanchez-Bronzetti grinding out a 4-6, 6-3, 12-10 win in a two-hour-plus battle at No. 3 to complete the sweep of the Cougars.
Head coach Matt Tyler gives lots of credit to the players who filled Barbery’s spot this weekend, such as Sanchez-Bronzetti and Marjanovic.
“It’s always tough to play a position up for those of us that had to, and it was good,” Tyler said. “The great problem we have this year is that every single girl on our team can play, so getting people playing time is sometimes an issue. In situations where we have somebody that’s out of that top six, we have girls that can slide in and fill their shoes, which is tremendous.”
Maletin’s two singles wins on the weekend moved her into the top five in career singles wins at Bradley. She said she loved how the team performed in their matches.
“I think this weekend was great, and I’m proud of all of them,” Maletin said. “One through six, they played amazing. We practiced a lot for this, and it was our time to shine.”
The Braves have their longest break of the season thus far before taking on Western Illinois on March 9 at 3 p.m.
