NORMAL, Ill. – On the opening day of Illinois State's Redbird Invitational at the Gregory Street Tennis Courts in Normal, Illinois, the Belmont University women's tennis team put together a combined eight match wins between singles and doubles play. With eight Bruins in action Friday, Belmont secured three doubles victories before claiming five singles wins.
Among fellow Missouri Valley Conference teams, the Bruins dropped only one doubles match. The tandems of redshirt freshman
Savannah Webster and sophomore
Jessica Popiol, freshman
Mia Jones and graduate
Cielo Tapia-Cruz, and freshman
Ketevan Jeladze and senior
Libbie Hamilton were all victorious in convincing fashion against doubles teams from Northern Iowa, Valparaiso and Murray State, respectively.
In singles action, Popiol, Jones, Tapia-Cruz, Jeladze and Hamilton all picked up triumphs.
Both Popiol and Hamilton were straight-set winners. Popiol handled Illinois State's Silvia Pomarolli 6-3, 6-2, while Hamilton took care of the University of Illinois Chicago's Charlotte Deletioglu 6-4, 6-3.
Jones and Jeladze both overcame opening set losses with Jones overcoming Bradley's Anna Belogliadova 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 and Jeladze withstanding Northern Iowa's Lasya Mylavarapu 5-7, 6-1, 6-4.
In the fourth singles flight, Tapia-Cruz defeated UIC's Dongke Liu 7-5 in the third set after the two split 6-1 first and second sets.
Belmont's complete match scores from Friday can be found below.
Play resumes at 9 a.m. Saturday with one round of doubles followed by one round of singles.
Redbird Invitational – Friday Results
Doubles
Flight #1 QF -
Savannah Webster/
Jessica Popiol (Belmont) def. Yangjiaxin Li/Andjela Raznatovic (UNI), 8-4
Flight #2 QF -
Mia Jones/
Cielo Tapia-Cruz (Belmont) def. Lacey Tanner/Brynn Steven (Valparaiso), 8-5
Flight #3 QF -
Ketevan Jeladze/
Libbie Hamilton (Belmont) def. Bruna Melato/Arden Dethridge (Murray State), 8-2
Flight #4 SF - Molly Null/Rebecca Widan (Murray State) def.
Emma Grant/
Annika Warkentin (Belmont), 8-2
Singles
Flight #1 QF - Valeria Chaikovskaia (Murray State) def.
Savannah Webster (Belmont), 6-1, 6-0
Flight #2 QF -
Jessica Popiol (Belmont) def. Silvia Pomarolli (Illinois State), 6-3, 6-2
Flight #3 QF -
Mia Jones (Belmont) def. Anna Belogliadova (Bradley), 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
Flight #4 QF -
Cielo Tapia-Cruz (Belmont) def. Dongke Liu (UIC), 6-1, 1-6, 7-5
Flight #5 QF -
Ketevan Jeladze (Belmont) def. Lasya Mylavarapu (UNI), 5-7, 6-1, 6-4
Flight #6 QF -
Libbie Hamilton (Belmont) def. Charlotte Deletioglu (UIC), 6-4, 6-3
Flight #7 QF - Jolene Fernandes (Valparaiso) def.
Emma Grant (Belmont), 7-5, 6-1
Flight #7 QF - Ana Baron (Valparaiso) def.
Annika Warkentin (Belmont), 6-4, 6-4
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