Bradley tennis traveled to Normal over the weekend to compete in the Redbird Invitational. In their second competition of the year, the Braves took individual and doubles championships.
Freshman Ruby Tseng led the Braves in singles play, winning Flight 5 of the singles tournaments. Tseng won the championship after a close battle with UIC freshman Marta Halbersztadt.
Other notable singles performances include junior Mariia Pukhina and sophomore Compassion Tsai, who stopped just short of gold, finishing second in their respective brackets. Sophomore Andra Sirbu and senior Kirstin Hailey took third place in their individual tournaments, landing at number two and number three for Bradley.
“I was really happy with how we competed this past weekend,” head coach Matt Tyler said. “I feel like confidence is where it needs to be, and practices have been very productive for us. And that translated into a lot of success.”
As for doubles, two Bradley teams took home first place. Sirbu and Hailey were victorious in Flight 1, with scores of 8-7(4) in the quarterfinals, 8-4 in the semifinals and 8-5 in the championship. Tsai and her partner, junior Madi Rogers, took first in Flight 4, where they only played two matches, as the bracket had four teams.
Additionally, junior Anna Belogliadova and sophomore Danielle Badman finished second in Flight 3, while Tseng and Pukhina took fourth in Flight 2.
“Doubles has always been a challenge for us,” Tyler said. “For us to be playing as well as we are right now, I think it bodes well for the future.”
This is Sirbu and Hailey’s second year teaming up following a successful season last year. After winning their doubles flight in Normal, Tyler is confident in the team’s chemistry.
“Andra and Kirstin getting that extra year of experience together really helps them,” Tyler said. “They know each other and are very comfortable playing together, and [they] had a great tournament all the way through.”
As was the case last year, the newcomers have shown their potential from early on in their first few tournaments. Tsai and Tseng have been impressive, considering what they went through to start the season.
“I’m really proud of both of them,” Tyler said. “Ruby had a bit of a tough transition. She got sick right when she got here and was out for two weeks. But she has worked super hard since getting healthy again and proved that she’s going to be an outstanding performer for us.”
“And for Compassion, it’s the same way,” Tyler added. “She’s got a year of college tennis under her belt [at UMass-Amherst], so she’s maybe a little more comfortable, but she certainly proved that she’s going to be a good player for us, too, and I expect nothing more from them.”
Bradley tennis continues their fall season this weekend in Chicago at the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Championships. At the same event last year, the Braves’ best performances in singles and doubles were third place, one of the singles bronze medalists being Hailey and one half of the doubles champions being Belogliadova.
“Going into a tournament weekend, a lot of [the focus] is just maintaining confidence from this past weekend,” Tyler said. “I think we’ve worked hard all season long up to this point, and I think everybody has knocked off the rust a little bit, and it feels like we’re in rhythm.”
Bradley starts the MVC tournament on Friday.
