Jan. 30, 2011

Final Results

MADISON, Wis. – After coming up just short last night in Milwaukee, the Northern Illinois women’s tennis team fell today to No. 74 Wisconsin 7-0 at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium.

“It didn’t look like it by the score, but it was the best we’ve ever looked against Wisconsin,” said NIU head coach Ryun Ferrell. “We were just scrappy and kept fighting. They’re just better than we are and I can live with that.

“With all that this team has endured just in the beginning of the season, they’ve really stepped up nicely and they’re playing hard and finding a way. It’s very refreshing. I’ve coached a lot of kids in years past that would just curl up into a ball and these kids are just saying bring it on.”

In doubles play, Kelly Phillips and Emily Rogers were defeated in the No. 1 flight by Nicky Stracar and Alaina Trgovich 8-1. In the second flight, Haley Dekking and Ilse Pacheco fell 8-2 to Hannah Berner and Jessica Seyferth, while Martina Schnapp and Sara McLaughlin dropped an 8-1 decision to Angela Chupa and Jenny Hois in the third.

In singles, Dekkinga has started off the spring where she left off in the fall. After picking up a win yesterday, she followed that up by taking Seyferth to a third set, before falling 4-6, 6-2, 1-0 in the fifth flight. NIU’s other freshman, and Dekkinga’s doubles partner, Pacheco was defeated in the sixth flight by Gruber, 6-1, 6-1.

In the No. 1 and No. 2 singles flights, Schnapp and Rogers both fell 6-1, 6-0 to Stracar and Hois. Phillips was defeated in the third flight by Trgovich 6-1, 6-3, and McLaughlin fell 6-0, 6-0 to Berner at No. 4.

“It was just a good experience because this team is young,” said Ferrell of the high-level of competition they faced. “We have a lot of people playing in new spots and they just need to play. The big thing is that they just go out and play. They went hard and got after them. They just didn’t leave anything out there. That’s what we have to have every time we go out there.

“They rose to the occasion and it was great. I can’t praise them enough. Yesterday, we were intense, but today was just another level of what we had.”

NIU (0-2) will be back on the courts on Friday, Feb. 4, in Champaign, Ill., as they face Eastern Illinois at 2 p.m. CT.

--NIU--