Jan. 22, 2011

Final Results

DAYTON, Ohio - On a day that didn't start well, with the untimely illness of Maximilian Phillips, the Northern Illinois men's tennis team received a huge boost from freshman Bryant Poggensee-Wei on its way to a 5-2 victory over Dayton in its 2011 spring season opener.

With six players on the team's weekend road trip, Poggensee-Wei, a walk-on who began play with the team in the fall, was moved into the No. 3 singles spot this morning due to Phillips's illness. The freshmen picked up a crucial straight-set 6-4, 6-4 win over Dayton's Benton Benalcazar providing the team an unexpected lift.

"Bryant really deserves a lot of credit today," said NIU head coach Patrick Fisher. "I think if he didn't play the way he did today, we wouldn't have won.

"This was great for him and his confidence and development as a player. He played awesome today. He deserves the spotlight."

Aside from Poggensee-Wei's win, last year's MAC Freshman Player of the Year, Maksym Bartiuk, began where he left off last season, notching a straight-set 6-2, 6-0 victory in the No. 1 singles flight over Robert Salcedeo. Rounding out the top four flights, junior Roman Turtygin defeated Joe West, 7-5, 6-3, while freshman Axel Lagerlof posted a dominant 6-1, 6-1 win over Alex Crum in his first match as a Huskie.

At the fifth and sixth flights, freshman Maksym Lagutin dropped a 6-0, 6-4 decision to Sean Bandy and Phillips dropped his match 6-2, 6-2 to Austin Wiegand.

Doubles play was a point of emphasis for Fisher during the off-season and on the first day of the season, the work appeared to pay off. The No. 1 pair of Bartiuk/ Lagutin recorded an 8-2 victory over the pairing of Benalcazer and Sam Pecyna. At the No. 2 flight Lagerlof/ Turtigyn defeated West/Wiegand to earn the Huskies the doubles point.

"I'm just excited with the way our team dealt with all of the adversity, having some guys being injured and then having some bad luck," Fisher said. "We put some guys into tough positions today and they stepped up, particularly, Bryant."

NIU (1-0) will have a quick turn-around as they face Butler University (0-1) on Sunday at 10 a.m. CT, at the Butler Bubble in Indianapolis, Ind.

--NIU--