PEORIA, IL - In a season that continues to see the Bradley Tennis program make historic gains on the court, the Braves also made program history Tuesday with the announcement of the 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Women's Tennis Scholar-Athlete Team. Bradley led the way with four honorees, including first-teamers Ariel Dechter and Irinka Toidze.
Bradley was the only one of The Valley's eight women's tennis programs to have as many as four student-athletes recognized and the Braves earned two first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete awards for the first time in program history. In addition to Dechter and Toidze, sophomore Alexa Brandt and junior Ashley Thai were honorable mention selections on the 17-person MVC Scholar-Athlete Team.
A junior from Mundelein, IL (Mundelein H.S.), Dechter has become the winningest player in Bradley women's tennis history with 121 career singles (69) and doubles (52) victories, and she owns 13 single-season school records, including most singles wins (29), most doubles wins (20) and most combined wins (47). Boasting a 3.73 cumulative grade point average as an accounting major, Dechter also earned first-team MVC Scholar-Athlete plaudits in 2015 and she earned the MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award in both 2014 and 2015.
A senior from Tbilisi, Georgia (Jejili), Toidze currently ranks as the winningest doubles player by percentage in Bradley history on the strength of a 33-18 (.647) record in doubles play. A second-year transfer from West Virginia, Toidze has teamed with Dechter for 30 of those victories, the fourth-best doubles pairing victory total in program history. Despite her abbreviated Bradley career, Toidze ranks 34th in Bradley history with 53 career singles (20) and doubles (33) wins. Double-majoring in economics and psychology, Toidze boasts a 3.54 cumulative grade point average and earned recognition on the 2015 MVC Honor Roll.
Dechter and Toidze teamed to win the Flight 3 Doubles title at the 2015 MVC Individual Championships last fall, one of just three individual conference titles in program history.
A sophomore from Denver, CO, Brandt has played in the top half of Bradley's order in each of her first two years and she has quickly climbed to 28th on the prgram's all-time career combined wins list with 58 singles (29) and doubles (29) victories. In her rookie season last year, she became the first-ever Bradley freshman to win as many as 40 combined matches, finishing the year with 42 singles (22) and doubles (20) wins. Sporting a 3.69 cumulative GPA as a health science major, Brandt earned the 2015 MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award and has qualified for the Bradley Athletic Director's Honor Roll in each of her first three seasons.
A junior from Hilliard, OH, Thai is a repeat honorable mention selection for the MVC Scholar-Athlete Team. She enters this weekend's MVC Women's Tennis Team Championships on the brink of becoming just the fifth player to win 100 career combined matches: Thai has won 99 career singles (51) and doubles (48) matches. One of five players in program history to win at least 20 singles matches in a season, Thai teamed with Brandt to win 20 doubles matches last season, equalling the single-season school record. Sporting a 3.59 cumulative GPA as a chemistry preprofessional major, Thai has earned the MVC Commissioner's Academic Excellence Award in each of her first two years.
Led by the quartet of scholar-athlete honorees, Bradley (12-12, 3-4 MVC) will enter this weekend's MVC Women's Tennis Team Championship at Wichita State as the No. 5 seed. The Braves will take on fourth-seeded Illinois State in Friday's 11:30 a.m. quarterfinal match.
