The Bradley women’s tennis team will travel to Chicago this weekend as they begin their season at the Chicago State Invitational. The team made significant strides in turning the program in the right direction and finished last season at an overall mark of 11-13.
“Last year was a great, program-building year,” head coach Matt Tyler said. “As far as this year goes, we are being cautiously optimistic but excited to see what we’ll be able to accomplish.”
The Braves snapped a number of unfavorable streaks last year, including beating Illinois State for the first time in 28 years. Tyler said the win against ISU, as well as a highly dramatic road win against conference opponent Missouri State, were both important steps for the program.
“My biggest concern is the team culture and cohesion; the most important things are helping each other and working hard,” Tyler said. “The wins are a byproduct of what we do, and they’ll come if we’re successful in the rest of what we do.”
Bradley returns five girls that were major contributors to the team’s success last year, notably junior Ariel Dechter and sophomore Aimee Manfredo.
Last season, Dechter became Bradley’s first-ever all-conference women’s tennis player when she was named to the 2015 MVC All-Select Team. She set the school single-season records for individual singles wins (29), as well as wins by a sophomore, #2 Singles wins, individual combined singles and doubles wins (47) and combined wins by a sophomore during the 2014-15 school year.
She enters her junior season fifth in school history with 47 career singles wins and tied for 10th with 79 career combined singles and doubles wins.
“Ariel had a great year and broke all kinds of records last season,” Tyler said. “We expect even more from her this year.
Manfredo set Bradley’s single-season record for singles wins by a freshman (23) in 2014-15, which also stands as the second-best season singles victories total by any player in program history. She also set the single-season program record for wins at #3 singles (12).
“The five returners are a good core group of kids from a personality and a team culture standpoint,” Tyler said. “They all have great attitudes and work-ethics, they know how to treat other teammates. To have that core in the process of building a program is critical.”
To add to the solid group of returnees, Tyler was plenty busy recruiting and filling out the rest of the roster. Freshmen Malini Wijesinghe, Julie Martin, Emma Sodergren and Lindsay Haight are all newcomers to the Hilltop. VCU transfer Alejandra de Lasa is also a new addition to the squad who will be able to contribute right away.
“I’ve never seen a group of people integrate as seamlessly as they all have,” Tyler said. “Everyone has come together amazingly well since day one.”
