BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Having to play indoors for the second consecutive Saturday due to forecasted thunderstorms and high winds, the Belmont University women's tennis team was handed a 5-2 setback on the road by Illinois State. The host Redbirds (15-6, 8-0 MVC), who won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship with the win, claimed the doubles point in convincing fashion before putting together four singles victories.
Both freshman
Mariia Hlahola and senior
Taylor Trondson earned singles triumphs for the Bruins (8-12, 5-2 MVC), but Illinois State had already clinched the match.
Despite the sophomore tandem of
Viktoria Kliimand and
Abi Solomon picking up a win at No. 2 doubles, 6-3 over the Redbirds' Alexandra Abyasova and Silvia Pomarolli, Belmont couldn't stop Illinois State on courts one and three. At the top doubles spot, the nationally-ranked duo of Hlahola and sophomore
Anastasiya Zholdakova was defeated 6-2 by the Redbirds' Tara Damnjanovic and Tijana Zlatanovic. Meanwhile, Illinois State's Elena Jankulovska and Nevena Kolarevic got past graduate student
Meredith Roberts and Trondson by an identical score at third doubles.
The Redbirds proved to be strong in the middle of their lineup in singles play, taking the No. 3-5 positions in straight sets. Kolarevic bested Zholdakova 6-4, 6-2 at the third spot and Pomarolli posted matching set scores at the fifth flight against Kliimand. At No. 4 singles, Damnjanovic topped Roberts 6-0, 6-4.
Solomon took the opening set from Abyasova, 6-3, at the No. 2 spot but was only able to muster one combined game in the second and third stanzas.
Hlahola and Trondson prevailed in three-set contests at the bookends of the lineup. At the sixth position, Trondson recovered from a 6-3 first set loss to Jankulovska with a 7-3 second set tiebreaker before winning the third-set super tiebreaker 10-5. Versus Zlatanovic at the top flight, Hlahola fought her way to a set one tiebreak victory (7-4) and closed out the match with a 6-3 set three win after dropping the second, 6-2.
Up Next
The Bruins wrap up the regular season Sunday at Bradley. First serve from the David Markin Tennis Courts in Peoria, Illinois, is slated for 11 a.m.
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