Feb. 19, 2011

Final Results

EVANSTON, Ill. - The Northern Illinois men's tennis team fell today at the hands of No. 69 Northwestern, 6-1, at the Combe Tennis Center. The Huskies lost the dual meet, but had strong performances against the nationally-ranked Wildcats.

In the second to last match to finish, Maksym Bartiuk earned his fifth win of the season in a three-set thriller over Joshua Graves in the No. 1 singles flight. After a quick start, taking the first set, 6-1, the sophomore battled some nerves in the second, dropping the set, 3-6. In a back-and-forth third set, Bartiuk was able to hold off NU's top player for a 7-5 victory.

"He's like a boxer that comes out and wins the first four rounds and loses the next six, and then makes the final rounds close," NIU head coach Patrick Fisher said of last season's MAC Freshman of the Year. "Instead of continuing to put the guy away and stay on top of him, he kind of lets guys back in it.

"In the third set he showed some courage and put pressure on [Graves] to get the win."

At No. 2, Axel Lagerlof nearly pulled off a win in the final match of the day, falling 10-5 in a third-set super tiebreaker to Spencer Wolf. After losing the first set, 6-3, the freshmen had a 5-3 lead in the second before being forced to hold on to the set, edging it out, 7-6. Up 2-0 and seemingly in control of the 10-point tiebreaker, Lagerlof double faulted. Wolf capitalized on the mistake and tipped momentum into his favor, running off seven-straight points en route to winning the final set.

"When things got tight, he started speeding up," Fisher said of the freshman. "I think he just has to learn at critical times that he needs to slow down, compose himself and be confident in whatever he's going to do."

At flights three through six, the Huskies were defeated in straight sets, as well as being swept in doubles play.

"We have improved in doubles, but I think we have to continue to tweak some things," Fisher said. "We might look at some changes with our doubles lineup as far as who plays with who. I think we have one more change, but after that I think we'll be set. Then we can just take off from there."

NIU (3-6) will head south next weekend with trips to St. Louis on Friday, Feb. 25 and Southern Illinois on Sunday, Feb. 27.

--NIU--