Valley women's tennis teams had an exciting weekend winning a total of eight matches. Both Illinois State (5-1) and Murray State (4-1) continued their impressive starts to the spring season.
Gustafsson had a strong week at the No. 1 singles spot for the Flames, going 2-0 against her opponents from Milwaukee and Miami University, winning both matches in straight sets. She defeated the Panthers' Babette Burgersdijk 6-2, 6-3 and Miami's Saravanan Nishitha 6-3, 6-4. Gustafsson was the only Flames student-athlete to win a singles match against the RedHawks Saturday. The senior is an impressive 4-1 on the season at the No. 1 singles spot and is on a two-match win streak.
The junior duo of Darta Dalecka and Lorena Cardoso played lights out taking on Northern Illinois and Western Illinois with back-to-back match ups at home. Opening up Friday's competition, Dalecka and Cardoso picked up UNI's lone doubles victory against Northern Illinois (#46) with a 6-3 win over Erika Dimitrieva and Nataly Ninova. Carrying over that confidence into Saturday, the duo was able to take down Lara Rossetto Diniz de Souza and Paige Grice by a 6-3 score which helped contribute to UNI's first win of the season over Western Illinois
Notable Singles Performances
- Vesa Gjinaj, Fr. (Belmont) - Defeated Samford 6-3, 6-2 and Southern Miss 6-3, 6-2
- Kim Zizek, Sr. (UNI) - Defeated Northen Illinois 6-7, 6-1, 10-5 and Western Illinois 6-2, 6-2
- Kirstin Hailey, Jr. (Bradley) - Defeated SIUE 7-6, 2-6, 10-8
- Olivia Czerwonka, 5th (Valparaiso) - Defeated Chicago State 6-1, 6-3 and Purdue Northwest 6-0, 6-3
- Varvara Alexeyeva, Fr. (Murray State) - Defeated Bellarmine 6-4, 6-2 and Eastern Kentucky 6-1, 6-0
- Tijana Zlatanovic, Sr. (Illinois State) - Defeated Chicago State 6-0, 6-2 and Washingtion University 6-2, 6-3
notable Doubles performances
- Abi Solomon, Jr. & Viktoria Kliimand, Jr. (Belmont) - Defeated Samford 6-0, and Southern Miss 6-0
- Paula Rodriguez Gregoris, So. & Zara Ryan, Grad. (UIC) - Defeated Miami (OH) 7 (7)- 6(5) and Milwaukee 6-1
- Paola Campigotto, Jr. & Marit Kreugel, Grad. (Murray State) - Defeated Bellarmine 6-0 and Eastern Kentucky 6-2
- Tijana Zlatanovic, Sr. & Lana Caculovic, So. (Illinois State) - Defeated Chicago State 6-3 and Washington University 8-4
MVC Standings
Belmont to host MVC championship
Belmont University is set to host the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Championship on April 26th-28th. This will be the first-ever MVC Team Tennis Championship held at Belmont's campus and the second MVC Champion the Bruins will host after the 2023 MVC Cross Country Championship in October. The competition will be held at Belmont Family Tennis Complex.