Women's Tennis Advances to MVC Tournament Semifinals

NORMAL, Ill. – In its first-ever Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, the third-seeded Belmont University women's tennis team took care of sixth-seeded Bradley 4-0 Friday afternoon in the first round to advance to the semifinals. The Bruins (10-12, 6-2 MVC) will take on second-seeded Drake Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the second semifinal of the 2023 MVC Women's Tennis Championship at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts in Normal, Illinois.
 
Belmont won the coveted doubles point thanks to 6-3 victories at the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles positions before earning straight-set wins in three of the top four singles matches.
 
Graduate student Meredith Roberts' 6-3, 6-2 victory over the Braves' Maria Bezmenova at No. 4 singles clinched the match.
 
The Ukrainian duo of freshman Mariia Hlahola and sophomore Anastasiya Zholdakova took out Madalena Andrade and Kirstin Hailey of Bradley (7-15, 2-6 MVC) at the top doubles spot, while Roberts and senior Taylor Trondson defeated the Braves' Alexandra Hildreth and Madi Rogers on court three. The sophomore tandem of Viktoria Kliimand and Abi Solomon were deadlocked at 5-5 with Bradley's Anna Belogliadova and Bezmenova at No. 2 doubles when the Bruins secured the first point.
 
Hlahola quickly put Belmont up 2-0 with a dominant showing at the top of the singles lineup, ousting Belogliadova 6-1, 6-0. Zholdakova then made it 3-0 with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 win over Hailey at No. 3 singles.
 
Kliimand had split sets with Andrade on court five and Solomon was up a set against the Braves' Mariia Pukhina at the second spot when Roberts finished the match. Trondson looked to be headed to a third set at No. 6 singles as she was leading Hildreth 5-2 in the second set after dropping the opening stanza.
 
Live scoring of Saturday afternoon's MVC Tournament semifinal match against the second-seeded Bulldogs (14-7, 7-1 MVC) can be found at BelmontBruins.com. Drake got past the Bruins 4-2 earlier in April but the doubles point wasn't contested as the match had to be moved indoors and singles was elected to be played first.
 
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