Feb. 9, 2012
DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois men's tennis team returns to its friendly confines of Boylan Tennis Center in Rockford for a Friday doubleheader, hosting IPFW and SIU-Edwardsville for a pair of matches beginning at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. The Huskies will travel down to Drake Sunday for a 1 p.m. matchup. NIU is undefeated at home this season.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Huskies traveled to the Hoosier State to take on No. 27 Indiana, a team with its only losses at the hands of top-10 programs (No. 3 Ohio State, No. 7 Kentucky). The Huskies battled with the Hoosiers in spots and held their own to the perennial Big-10 power as Dor Amir and Axel Lagerlof took their doubles match down to the wire, but ultimately falling 8-7. In singles, freshman Frederic Cadieux took the first set of the match, 6-4, but lost in the next two sets, including the final set tiebreaker 6-2, 1-0.
Overall, Northern Illinois would fall to Indiana 7-0 in the match and to 2-1 in the duel season.
IPFW is 1-4 so far this season with its lone win versus in-state foe St. Joseph's, 7-0, on Feb. 4. The following day, the Mastodons nearly earned their second victory of the weekend when they traveled to Dayton, winning one doubles and three singles matches. Both losses in doubles were identical 8-6 scores. Junya Saruta at the No. 6 position has been a rock for the team with a 3-2 record this spring.
SIUE has only played two matches and is 0-2 thus far. On Jan. 20 the Cougars took on IUPUI and fell 5-2 in the season opener and a day later fell to Wright State with a similar 5-2 score. Marten Jonsson, a native of Pitea, Sweden, is the team's ace this spring with a flawless 2-0 mark at No. 1.
The Huskies are very familiar with the Bulldogs as they competed against each other Sept. 23-25 at the Drake Invitational. Drake is currently No. 73 in the country and is 4-1 in the spring, suffering its only loss at No. 73 Harvard on Jan. 28. The Bulldogs nationally ranked DePaul (No. 66) in their season-opener Jan. 27, 4-2. DU is undefeated at the No. 1 position this season (4-0) and Ben Mullis leads the team in duel wins with a mark of 4-2.
After the weekend, Northern Illinois will return to action Feb. 17 to host a pair of Indiana institutions in Valparaiso and IUPUI. The first match with Valpo will begin at 1 p.m., while the match with Jaguars will begin at 6 p.m.
