PEORIA, Ill. – Bradley Tennis (7-10, 2-2) travels to Iowa for its final road matches of the conference slate, facing Drake and Northern Iowa on April 11 and April 12.
MATCH INFORMATION – AWAY vs DRAKE (7-9, 2-1)
Where: Roger Knapp Tennis Center - Des Moines, Iowa
When: Saturday, April 11 - 11:00 a.m.
Live Scoring:
iOnCourt
MATCH INFORMATION – AWAY vs NORTHERN IOWA (2-12, 0-3)
Where: Black Hawk Tennis Center - Waterloo, Iowa
When: Sunday, April 12 - 10:00 a.m.
PREVIEWING THE BULLDOGS
The Drake Bulldogs are 7-9 on the 2026 season and hold a 2-1 record in MVC play. After starting the season 1-6, the Bulldogs have gone 6-3 over their last nine matches dating to Feb. 20. Drake is on a two-match win streak, winning road matches over Belmont and Northern Iowa. Most recently, the Bulldogs swept their in-state rivals, 7-0, on April 5 in Waterloo, Iowa. Drake and Bradley have shared a litany of opponents this season, with the Bulldogs holding a 5-3 record against common opponents.
Saturday's match will be the 33rd all-time meeting between Bradley and Drake and the 16th meeting in Des Moines. Bradley took last season's matchup at Parkside Fitness, winning 4-3 on March 29, 2025.
Senior Maja Dodik leads Drake in singles wins during 2025-26 with 18. Since the start of 2026, Dodik has gone 14-2 in singles play. Jordane Dookie and Elizabete Klavinska are tied for second on the team in singles wins with 14 apiece. Dodik and Dookie have been dominant in doubles as well as singles, with the pair holding an 11-2 record together.
PREVIEWING THE PANTHERS
The Northern Iowa Panthers are 2-12 on the 2026 season and are 0-3 in MVC play. Most recently, the Panthers, who are on a three-match losing streak, were swept by Drake on April 5. Prior to Sunday's match against the Braves, the Panthers will face the MVC's second-ranked Illinois State Redbirds on April 11.
Sunday's match will mark the 46th all-time meeting between Bradley and Northern Iowa. The series is historically tight, with the Braves holding a 23-22 advantage over the Panthers. Long stretches of dominance have defined the history, as Bradley went 14-2 from 1984-1997, and Northern Iowa was dominant from 1998-2015. From 2016-24, Bradley went 10-0 over Northern Iowa until last season's 5-2 victory by the Panthers on March 30, 2025.
In singles, the Panthers with the most wins in 2026 are sophomore Abbie Peterson and freshman Lucia Schuknecht, who each have five wins. Peterson, who is 2-1 in conference matches, has each of her wins on courts four, five and six, while Schuknecht has her five wins spread across courts one, two and three. In doubles, one pair has multiple wins together, as Kayla Santosa and Kanyanut Sudsaard have two wins together, both on court three.
LAST TIME OUT
Bradley picked up a 4-3 victory over Lindenwood on Wednesday, April 8 at the Markin Courts. The Braves took the doubles point after a 6-2 victory from
Ann Hsieh and
Valeriia Ivanovskaia and a 6-3 win from
Anna Belogliadova and
Compassion Tsai.
Mariia Pukhina earned a swift, straight-set win on court three, while Ivanovskaia and
Ruby Tseng battled to three-set wins to secure the match win.
TEAM NEWS & NOTES
- Wednesday's victory over Lindenwood was the Braves' second in three meetings with the Lions and the first at home.
- The victory also marked the 14th time in 17 matches that a Bradley match finished with a 4-3 final score.
- The match versus Lindenwood was the first midweek match at the Markin Courts since 2024, when Bradley knocked off Southern Indiana, 5-2. The Braves have now won the last two Markin Midweek Matches.
- Ruby Tseng picked up her 20th singles victory of the 2025-26 season in just 24 matches played. She is the first player to win 20 singles matches in a season since Nikki Perlwitz won 21 in 2021-22.
- Mariia Pukhina won her fourth consecutive singles match on Wednesday, winning 6-1, 6-0 in just under one hour. The win was Pukhina's second this season where the opponent only took one game across the match, as the senior picked up a 6-0, 6-1 win against Marquette.
- The MVC standings remain unchanged from Tuesday entering this weekend's matches. UIC continues to lead the way at 3-0, while Illinois State and Murray State are 3-1, with the tiebreaker favoring Illinois State. Drake remains fourth at 2-1, followed by Bradley in fifth at 2-2. Belmont is sixth, the final tournament qualifying spot, at 1-3, while Northern Iowa and Valparaiso are tied for seventh at 0-3.
COMING UP...
Bradley will host Illinois State for its final regular-season match of the year and Senior Day on Sunday, April 19, at the Markin Courts. First serve is scheduled for 12:00 p.m.
