WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The Lipscomb women’s tennis team put together a strong performance at the Purdue Invite over the weekend. The Lady Bisons brought home six top-five finishes, including three draw victories, in the tournament that consisted of singles and doubles action.
In addition to Lipscomb and host Purdue, participating teams included Xavier, Wright State, Miami, Northern Illinois and Western Kentucky.
“We dealt with a little adversity coming into the tournament due to weather limiting our practice time last week in Nashville,” Lipscomb head coach Jamie Aid said. “What really stood out this weekend was how driven and competitive our girls are.
Sophomore Kate Popova highlighted the tournament by going undefeated in both singles and doubles, giving her a 7-0 mark on the weekend.
The Ukraine native defeated Miami’s Emily Struble (6-3, 6-0) and WKU’s Laura Bernardos (6-0, 6-2) to get move to the championship of the Black singles draw. She took home the crown Sunday after knocking off Xavier’s Ahmeir Kyle (6-3, 6-1).
Popova teamed with senior Vika Dzyuba to go 4-0 and win the 16-team Black doubles draw. The duo downed NIU (8-6), Ball State (8-4) and Wright State (8-4) to get to the final where they took down Purdue’s Ena Babic and Amina Mukhametshina (8-4).
Senior Madeleine Brooks was impressive after putting together a 5-1 record over three days. The Norfolk, England native finished 3-0 in singles action to win the Gold draw. She recorded victories over Xavier’s Rachel Reichenbach (7-6(5), 6-4) and Purdue’s Caitlin Calkins (6-4, 6-1) before upending Xavier’s Sophia Abelson (6-2, 7-5) in the championship match.
Brooks and Denise Buberl finished fourth in the Black doubles draw after going 2-1 with a pair of (8-6) wins over Xavier and Miami.
Buberl put together a second-place finish in the Purdue Singles draw after going 2-1. She downed Wright State’s Andreea Craciun (6-4, 6-3) and Ball State’s Peyton Gollhofer (7-5, 0-6, 7-5) before falling (3-6, 4-6) in the final.
In total with all nine Lady Bisons hitting the court, Lipscomb finished 29-12 overall. The Purple and Gold finished 17-9 in singles play and 12-3 in doubles.
Senior Thabile Tshatedi went 6-2 on the weekend, with 3-1 marks in both singles and doubles.
Freshman Maddox Bandy finished 1-2 in the Hammer Down singles draw, and teamed with Tshatedi to go 3-1 in doubles.
Freshmen duo Liza Diachenko and Eleanor Chapman brought home a third-place finish in the Gold doubles draw after going 3-1.
In singles play Chapman went 2-2, while Diachenko was 1-2.
Junior Kateryna Kandyba put together a 2-1 weekend in singles action to win the consolation bracket of the Boiler Up draw.
Lipscomb will be back on the court Oct. 11-15 when it travels to Chattanooga for the ITA Regionals.