Feb. 19, 2011

Final Results

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Northern Illinois women’s tennis dropped tonight’s dual meet, 7-0, to Marquette at Helfaer Tennis Stadium as the Golden Eagles were still riding momentum after an upset over No. 49 Iowa earlier in the day.

The Huskies began the evening losing the doubles point after being defeated in each flight. Marquette carried its solid play over to singles action, winning five of six matches in straight sets.

“We keep talking about the attitude and effort and both were better than last weekend,” said NIU head coach Ryun Ferrell. “Our ability to play was even better that last weekend. I can’t complain -- we just need to get over the hump.

The lone three-setter of the night was a heartbreaker in the No. 5 singles flight for Haley Dekkinga, who currently leads the team with four singles victories. After Chelsea Utting took the first set, 6-2, Dekkinga tied up the match, taking the second set, 6-4. Down 9-7 in the super tiebreaker, the freshman clawed back to tie the break-point up at nine-all, but was unable to outlast Utting, falling, 11-9.

“She had [Utting] so far off her game,” Ferrell said. “If they would have played a full third set, she would have won it. When you play 10 points, it’s anybody’s ballgame.”

Now with nearly two weeks off, and only three dual meets left before opening conference play, Ferrell is looking forward to what his squad will look like going forward.

“I feel like it’s just the first half of the season is done and we’ve done a lot in a month,” Ferrell said. “I think we’ve improved a lot in a month and I’m looking forward to what the next month is going to look like. If we can continue this improvement, I think we’re going to look really good.

“Over the next five weeks, we’re going slow things down and get more quality practice in rather than quantity practice and see what happens.”

NIU will return to action on Friday, March 5, as the team hosts Western Illinois at the Boylan Tennis Center. The Huskies scheduled match on Sunday at Wisconsin-Green Bay has been postponed.

--NIU--