The Drake University women's tennis team heads to Illinois for two Missouri Valley Conference matches this weekend. The Bulldogs will meet Bradley at 11 a.m. on Saturday and follow that up with a 10 a.m. match with Illinois State on Sunday.

The Bulldogs (8-5, 2-0 MVC) topped Valparaiso last week, 6-1, to move into second place in the conference. Drake won every match in singles competition, including four victories in just two sets. They also won two of three doubles matches against Valpo. This is the second time in the last three conference seasons that the Bulldogs have won their first two conference matches.

Bradley is an even 6-6 on the season, however they are 0-2 in conference play. They most recently won a match 4-1 with Northern Illinois. Their No. 1 doubles team, Sandra Maletin and Victoria-Sánchez-Bronzetti, headed into that match winning the MVC doubles team of the week. They will challenge Liza Petushkova and Maria Tatarnikova. Petushkova holds the honor of singles MVC player of the week from a few weeks prior. Drake fell to Bradley 6-1 in its last meeting two years ago. That was the Braves' first win over the Bulldogs since they began playing yearly in the 1999-2000 season, leaving Drake 22-1 over Bradley in that time period.

Illinois State is also 2-0 in conference play and 14-7 overall this season. They won their last match which was against Missouri State 4-3. They won all three doubles matches along with half of the singles matches. They will first play UNI on Saturday and end the weekend with the Bulldogs on Sunday. The Bulldogs lost the last contest with the Redbirds, but Drake has won six of the last 10 meetings.

Following this weekend's matches, the Bulldogs will be at home to finish off the regular season on April 18 with a match against Missouri State.