MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Despite a valiant effort in its third road match in as many days, the Bellarmine women's tennis team fell by a final score of 4-2 at Middle Tennessee on Sunday afternoon.

The Knights (1-7) claimed the doubles point, but MTSU (2-2) rallied with four singles victories to secure the team win.
 
"Middle Tennessee is an extremely tough team to put away," Knights Head Coach Brian Slack said.  "We played well in doubles to get the doubles point.  We started off really well in singles at the top four spots, winning first sets.  About halfway through the singles in second sets, their crowd really started to become a factor and brought energy to push their players.  We just didn't match the energy in those moments to stay ahead.  I'm proud of this group after a long weekend of playing."

Bellarmine's no. 1 doubles team of Ekaterina Tikhonko and Lailaa Bashir earned a commanding 6-1 victory, while Shu Grosso and Vendula Kryslova claimed a 6-4 win at no. 2 doubles to lock up the doubles point.

Bellarmine indeed picked up first set wins at the top four singles spots.  Tikhonko finished her no. 2 singles match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Sana Garakani, which was Bellarmine's other team point.  Kryslova won the first set of her no. 3 singles match 6-4, but Muskan Gupta rallied for a three-set win.  In similar fashion at no. 4 singles, Lilly-Sophie Schmidt trailed Shu Gross by one set but came from behind for a three-set victory.  Bashir played no. 1 singles for Bellarmine and was tied 2-2 in the third set, but her match against Love-Star Alexis went unfinished.  Wins at no. 5 and no. 6 singles from Noelle Mauro and Rutuja Chaphalkar respectively.

The Knights have the next 12 days off before returning to action against Marian and Southern Indiana at home on Feb. 11.

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