PEKIN, Ill. – Closing out the regular season with a victory, the Belmont University women's tennis team completed its three-match road stretch Sunday with a 4-0 sweep of Bradley. Forced to play indoors for the second consecutive day due to late-winter like conditions outside, the Bruins (9-12, 6-2 MVC) put together strong performances at the top two doubles positions before winning a trio of straight-set singles matches.
With the road win, Belmont clinches the No. 3 seed for next weekend's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
The nationally-ranked Ukrainian doubles duo of freshman
Mariia Hlahola and sophomore
Anastasiya Zholdakova and the sophomore tandem of
Viktoria Kliimand and
Abi Solomon gave the Bruins a 1-0 start at the Parkside Fitness tennis center in Pekin, Illinois. Both earning 6-3 triumphs, Hlahola and Zholdakova took out the Braves' Madalena Andrade and Kirstin Hailey at the top spot while Kliimand and Solomon defeated Bradley's Anna Belogliadova and Maria Bezmenova at No. 2 doubles.
The Braves (7-14, 2-6 MVC) led 5-4 on court three but Belmont closed out the doubles point before the match could finish.
Hlahola wasted no time in putting the Bruins up 2-0 in singles play as she dismissed Belogliadova 6-3, 6-0 at the top flight. At No. 5 singles Kliimand ousted Andrade 6-3, 7-5, and senior
Taylor Trondson picked up a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Bradley's Alexandra Hildreth at the sixth spot.
When Belmont secured the match, Solomon led the Braves' Mariia Pukhina 5-2 in the opening set at No. 2 singles. Graduate student
Meredith Roberts trailed Bezmenova at the fourth position after dropping the first set 6-1 but forced a second set tiebreaker.
Up Next
The third-seeded Bruins will take on sixth-seeded Bradley once again next weekend in the first round of the 2023 MVC Women's Tennis Championship, held Friday-Sunday, April 21-23 at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts in Normal, Illinois. The opening round contest will take place Friday at 2 p.m. The MVC Tournament will be Belmont's first as new conference members.
Follow Belmont women's tennis on social media –
@BelmontWTennis on Twitter and
@belmontwtennis on Instagram – for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the
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