Bradley’s tennis team returned from the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships at Valparaiso from Oct. 8-Oct.10 After 10 matches, Bradley secured three third place finishes and four runner-up finishes, with seven matches being individual matches, and three being doubles.
In singles, senior Sandra Maletin earned her third career MVC Individual runner-up title after dropping her finals match at No. 1 Singles to Tijana Zlatanovic of Illinois State 3-6, 6-4, 6-7 (7-9)
Junior Nikki Perlwitz, senior Nina Marjanovic and sophomore Maria Bezmenova also finished as runners-up in their individual flights this weekend as well.
Playing at No. 5 Singles, Bezmenova eeked out wins over Thaissa Moreria of Northern Iowa and Mara Prescot of Missouri State. The Russian sophomore fell to Drake’s Darinka Stepan 1-6, 6-7 (2-7) in the flight’s championship match.
At No. 6 Singles, Perlwitz prevailed in straight sets over Stony Brook’s Aradhan Jayakrishna and beat Drake’s Kelsey Neville in the semifinals 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). The senior fell to Illinois State’s Penelope Abreu in the finals match 2-6, 1-6. Another Redbird, Othilia Brodin, defeated Bradley’s Marjanovic in the finals at No. 7 Singles 4-6, 1-6.
The Braves added another top-three finish to their weekend after junior Bozana Lojpur came back from behind to win a third set 10-point tiebreaker against Stony Brook’s Lor Villalba-Rubio in the No. 2 Singles third-place match.
In doubles matches, sophomore Madalena Andrade and Bezmenova finished in third by winning their match 8-6 against Angela Sou and Villalba-Rubio from Stony Brook. The freshman duo Kirstin Hailey and Maletin also finished in third in No. 1 Doubles due to a withdrawal by their opponents from Drake.
Yesterday, the team began play in Iowa City, Iowa for the ITA Central Region Individual Championships. The single-elimination tournament will run until Oct. 25 and will feature a field of 128 individuals.
Maletin will be playing in her last tournament of her Bradley career since the senior plans to graduate in December. With a win this week, Maletin will tie Teri Chan for third place in Bradley history in singles wins. The Braves also have a chance to record their highest winning percentage in a fall season in Matt Tyler’s tenure, pending the results at the tournament.
