Racers Sweep MVC Opening Weekend at Home

Saturday, March 28

Murray, Ky.

12 p.m.

Murray State

Drake

3/29/2026 5:57:00 PM | Women's Tennis

The Racers enjoyed a highly successful weekend on the tennis courts, overcoming an early deficit on Saturday before putting on a clinic on Sunday to sweep their Missouri Valley Conference matchups, moving their MVC regular season match win streak to 20.

On Saturday, March 28, the team traveled to face Drake and found themselves in an early hole after dropping the doubles point. Drake secured wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles positions, with Jordane Dookie and Maja Dodik taking the top spot 6-1 and the pair of Kristina Tai and Elizabete Klavinska edging out a 7-6 victory at the second position.

While Valeria Chaikovskaia and Sofia Issakova picked up a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles, Drake held the 1-0 lead heading into singles play. The challenge grew steeper as Drake claimed the top two singles matches, putting them one point away from a team victory. However, the Racers displayed incredible resilience by sweeping the remaining four singles matches to secure a 4-3 comeback win.

Yu Kikawa battled through a grueling three-set match at the No. 3 spot to win 6-1, 5-7, 7-6, while Sofia Issakova and Rebecca Widan provided efficient straight-set victories at No. 4 and No. 6 respectively. Bruna Melato took the win 6-0, 7-6 win at the No. 5 position.

The momentum from Saturday's comeback carried over into Sunday morning's match against UNI, where the Racers took control early and never looked back.

Unlike the previous day, the team dominated the doubles round by sweeping all three matches to earn the first point. Barbora Hermanova and Bruna Melato won a 7-6 battle at the No. 1 spot, while the pairings of Yuna Kadowaki/Yu Kikawa and Valeria Chaikovskaia/Sofia Issakova earned comfortable 6-1 and 6-2 wins.

In singles play, the top of the lineup was untouchable. Valeria Chaikovskaia rebounded from Saturday with a commanding 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 1, and Yuna Kadowaki followed suit with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 2. Yu Kikawa remained undefeated on the weekend with a 6-1, 6-1 win at the No. 3 spot.

The most dominant performance of the day came from Rebecca Widan at No. 6, who delivered a perfect 6-0, 6-0 victory. Although UNI managed to pick up two points at the No. 4 and No. 5 positions through tight three-set tiebreakers, the Racers had already done enough to secure a convincing 5-2 team win.