Women's Tennis Downs Drake 5-2 on the Road to Close Regular Season

DES MOINES, Iowa – Closing out its Iowa road trip and wrapping up the regular season, the Belmont University women's tennis team defeated Drake 5-2 Sunday afternoon at the Roger Knapp Tennis Center in Des Moines, Iowa. With the road victory, the Bruins (12-9, 5-3 MVC) clinched the No. 4 seed for next weekend's Missouri Valley Conference Tennis Championship hosted by Belmont at the Beaman Family Tennis Complex.
 
Strong in the middle of their singles lineup, the Bruins won the all-important doubles point thanks to the No. 1 doubles tandem of sophomore Mariia Hlahola and junior Anastasiya Zholdakova. Belmont then earned singles wins at the third through fifth positions to finish off the host Bulldogs (8-12, 4-4 MVC).
 
The Bruins led 1-0 going into the match as Drake had only five available players. Winning No. 3 doubles by default, Belmont turned to Hlahola and Zholdakova for the doubles-clinching triumph. The duo defeated the Bulldogs' Ines Stephani and Rebecca Ehn 6-4 at the top spot after Drake's Darinka Stepan and Mille Haagensen topped junior Viktoria Kliimand and freshman Vesa Gjinaj at No. 2 doubles.
 
In singles action, the Bulldogs evened the match with straight-set wins at the top two spots. Stephani bested Hlahola 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 singles, while Haagensen got past Gjinaj 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 singles.
 
Kliimand overcame a 6-0 opening set loss to Stepan at No. 4 singles, storming back and taking sets two and three 6-4, 6-4 to secure the needed fourth point for the Bruins. Belmont had pulled ahead 3-2 with a 6-4, 7-5 victory from Zholdakova at a third spot against Ehn.
 
Junior Aly Getty put a punctuation mark on the day as she handled Drake's Nicole Lee 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5 singles.
 
Up Next
In a rematch of last year's MVC Tennis Championship second semifinal, the fourth-seeded Bruins will take on the fifth-seeded Bulldogs for the second consecutive weekend this Friday in the first round of the conference tournament. First serve from the Beaman Family Tennis Complex in the Music City is set for 10 a.m. Should Belmont get past the defending tournament champions, the Bruins will face top-seeded regular season champion Murray State in the first semifinal of the MVC Championship Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
 
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