Jan. 29, 2011
Final Results 
MILWAUKEE, Wis. – It may not have been the result that Northern Illinois wanted to open the season, but head coach Ryun Ferrell was pleased with the way that his team played Saturday night in a 4-3 defeat to UW-Milwaukee at LeClub in Milwaukee, Wis.
“I’m excited about how we played tonight,” said Ferrell about the team’s play without senior Kathryn Friedlund. “Wen you lose a player like Katie in the lineup, someone who you’ve been training to play pretty high for awhile and she’s not in there, then you have to tell everyone that they have to step up. They all stepped up, but we just came up a little short tonight.”
The Huskies came out ready play from the start of the evening, sweeping doubles play and earning the doubles point with a trio of new pairings. At No. 1, Kelly Phillips and Emily Rogers defeated a quality pairing in Maddy Soule and Kelly Fritz, 8-5. The veteran pairing of Martina Schnapp and Sara McLaughlin picked up a convincing 8-4 win over Sammi Schoen and Mary Ellen Donnovan in the third flight, while the freshmen pair of Ilse Pacheco and Haley Dekkinga finished off the sweep with a 9-8 win over Megan Gow and Beth Ganser.
In singles play, NIU picked up convincing wins in the No. 4 and No. 5 flights behind a 6-3, 6-1 win for Phillips over Ganser at number four, and a 6-2, 6-4 victory for Dekkinga against Brittany Skemp at number five. Pacheco was defeated by Kristen Kurer 6-0, 6-2 in the sixth flight.
In the top singles flights, Rogers, who was competing at the No. 1 spot for the first time since Feb. 21, 2010, dropped a close two-set match 6-4, 7-5 to Soule, while Schnapp came up on the short-end of a 6-1, 6-4 decision against Fritz at No. 2.
Tied at three, the last match to finish was the difference. After moving up to the third spot in the lineup this season, McLaughlin dropped a hard-fought, three-set match, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 to Schoen.
“In singles, we looked good, but I had six girls playing in six new spots,” Ferrell said. “It’s just going to take them a little more time to get adjusted as to what needs to happen. “The attitude and the heart are there - that for me is sometimes the toughest thing to get going. The ability for us is just going to come as we play more and more.”
Northern Illinois will be back on the courts tomorrow in Madison, Wis., as they face the University of Wisconsin at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium at 3 p.m. CT.
--NIU--
