PEORIA, Ill. ? Sophomore Teri Chan posted her seventh consecutive singles victories and the Braves led Southwest Missouri State 3-1 in the first round of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women's Tennis Championship Friday at the David Markin Tennis Courts, but the Bears rallied to pull out third set victories at #1, #2 and #4 singles to advance to today's quarterfinal match against #1 seed Drake.
SMS took an early 1-0 lead, winning two of three double matches to claim the doubles point. Liz Garza and Maja Stanojevic of SMS posted a 9-8 (5) victory over Bradley's Elise Montrose and Ashley Morris at #1 doubles. Biljana Gakovic and Paty Manzur also won for the Bears at #2 doubles, defeating Chan and senior Kelley Wood, 8-3. Senior Marissa Bianchi and freshman Jessica Sampias trailed 6-7 at #3 doubles to Carolina Ardila and Stephanie Harmazy of SMS when the doubles point was decided.
The Braves evened the match quickly, however, as Manzur was forced to sit out singles play with an injury, giving Bradley a default win at #6 singles. Chan made quick word of Gakovic at #3 singles, winning 6-1, 6-3 to pick up her seventh consecutive win in singles play and put Bradley ahead 2-1. Freshman Jessica Sampias earned her first victory of the year at #5 singles, defeating Stephanie Harmazy of SMS, 6-3, 6-3 to improve to 1-4 at #5 singles and give the Braves a 3-1 lead.
Senior Kelley Wood won the first set at #4 singles, but Carolina Ardila took the final two sets 6-4, 6-0 to cut Bradley's lead to 3-2. Sophomore Elise Montrose rallied after losing the first set 4-6 at #1 singles to Garza, to win the second set 6-3. Garza claimed the third set, however, winning 6-3 to knot the match at 3-3.
Junior Ashley Morris and Maja Stanojevic finished out the near four and a half hour match with a thrilling three-game match. Morris was ahead 5-2 in the third set, but Stanojevic fought back and defeated Morris 6-7 (7), 7-5, 7-5 to seal the win for SMS.
Bradley ended the season with a 6-16 overall record. The Braves lose two players to graduation in Wood and fellow senior Marissa Bianchi.
Quarterfinal action of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women's Tennis Championship has been forced indoors to the Clubs at River City South Friday afternoon due to inclement weather.
