March 29, 2007

DeKalb, Ill. - The NIU men's tennis team (5-7) was forced to play indoors due to the rain, but the change didn't affect the Huskies as they dominated intra state rival Western Illinois (7-6) on their way to a 6-1 victory. The Huskies only dropped two matches in the impressive win to start the four match home stand..

"We played pretty well throughout the lineup, we struggled in doubles, but were able to get the point then we were solid in singles," head coach Pontus Hiort said of the Huskies win, "Overall it was a good win for us."

It was not the best start for the Huskies as the Western Illinois' doubles combo of Wittenberg and Junck defeated NIU's Livingston and Ford 8-4, but the Huskies bounced back with big wins by Chu and Friesen and Monroy and Zegarra-Ballon to take the doubles point, going up 1-0 over Western Illinois.

In singles action the Leathernecks were able to tie the overall score after Martin Boström defeated sophomore Brian Livingston (Skokie, IL/Niles North) in number one singles 6-4, 6-3. After that it was all Huskies, as junior Alex Friesen (Vancouver, British Columbia/Burnaby Central) took down Neil Lesinski from WIU by a score of 6-3, 6-1, then junior Adam Ford (Grand Rapids, MI/Forest Hills Central) fought off a determined opponent in Western Illinois' Justin Junck. Ford won the first set 6-3 then Junck came back to take the second set 6-4 and Ford won the third and final set to make the score 3-1 in favor of the Huskies.

NIU sophomore Jimmy Chu (Lima, Peru/San Augustin) sealed the victory with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Andy Jones of WIU. Junior Diego Zegarra-Ballon (Lima, Peru/Markham College Prep) of NIU made a triumphant return to the Huskie lineup after missing the last several weeks due to injury with a straight set victory, and freshman Javier Bernabe (Segova, Spain/IES Mariano Quintanilla) finished the day with a 6-3, 6-3 win to make the final score 6-1 in favor of NIU.

The Huskies continue their home stand Saturday, April 7 with a big match against conference foe Western Michigan in DeKalb at 1:00 pm.

Northern Illinois vs. Western Illinois

NIU 6, WIU 1

Singles

1. Martin Boström (WIU) def. Brian Livingston (NIU) - 6-4, 6-3

2. Alex Friesen (NIU) def. Neil Lesinski (WIU) - 6-3, 6-1

3. Adam Ford (NIU) def. Justin Junck (WIU) - 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

4. Jimmy Chu (NIU) def. Andy Jones (WIU) - 6-4, 6-1

5. Diego Zegarra-Ballon (NIU) def. Drew Forsberg (WIU) - 6-1, 6-1

6. Javier Bernabe (NIU) def. Michael Tiu (WIU) - 6-3, 6-3

Doubles

1. Wittenberg/Junck (WIU) def. Livingston/Ford (NIU) - 8-4

2. Chu/Friesen (NIU) def. Boström/Jones (WIU) - 8-5

3. Monroy/Zegarra-Ballon (NIU) def. Forsberg/Tiu (WIU) - 8-5