VALPARAISO, Ind. – Indoors at The Courts of Northwest Indiana, the Belmont University women's tennis team saw its 2025 season draw to a close as the fourth-seeded Bruins were unable to upset the top-seeded Racers of Murray State in the first semifinal of the 2025 Missouri Valley Conference Tennis Championship in Valparaiso, Indiana. Belmont (7-15) gave the Racers (16-6) all they could handle with impressive wins at the top of the doubles and singles lineups, but Murray State secured the semifinal victory with strong singles play.
The Racers won four singles matches in straight sets after the Bruins won the doubles point.
Belmont took No. 1 and No. 2 doubles with the senior tandem of
Anastasiya Zholdakova and
Aly Getty defeating Murray State's Yu Kikawa and Yuna Kadowaki 6-4 on court two. It was the Bruins' top doubles duo of senior
Viktoria Kliimand and sophomore
Hana Sokolovic who clinched the all-important doubles point as the pair edged the Racers' first-team all-conference team of Valeria Chaikovskaia and Bruna Melato 7-5 in a tiebreaker.
Murray State had taken third doubles, 6-1, before Belmont's two doubles triumphs.
In singles, Zholdakova was victorious at the No. 1 spot with a 7-5, 6-3 win over All-MVC Second Team selection Chaikovskaia.
Getty was leading the Racers' Melato at No. 5 singles after taking the opening set in a tiebreaker when Murray State won its fourth match.
The Racers' Kikawa closed the door on the Bruins on court four where she topped junior
Libbie Hamilton 6-3, 6-4. Murray State had gotten convincing wins from Paola Campigotto at No. 6 singles (6-0, 6-3), Kadowaki at No. 3 singles (6-1, 6-1) and Varya Alexeyeva at No. 2 singles (6-1, 6-3).
Belmont reached the MVC Championship semifinals for the third consecutive year. In head coach
Ellie Burger's first season leading the Bruins, Belmont went 5-3 in MVC play.
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