March 2, 2012
ROCKFORD, Ill. - The Northern Illinois men's tennis team, coming off a 2-1 weekend at home, will again host a pair of matches as they meet Southern Illinois and Eastern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., respectively. The Huskies will also play their first road match since Feb. 12 this weekend, going to Wisconsin Sunday at 3 p.m.
"We feel pretty good heading into this weekend," said Head Coach Patrick Fisher, "We obviously need to bounce back after our loss against Cleveland State. We've played well we just got to get back to our winning ways."
Last weekend, the Huskies opened versus Dayton and Western Illinois Feb. 25 at Boylan Tennis Center and made a clean sweep of the Flyers and the Leathernecks, defeating both, 7-0. Overall, the Huskies were a perfect 18-0, winning all doubles matches and singles matches.
The following day, NIU took on Cleveland State and soon found itself in a deficit against the Vikings, losing the doubles point for the fourth time this season. In singles competition, only Dor Amir and Frederic Cadieux came up with victories, leaving the Huskies with a 5-2 loss. It was Northern Illinois' first home loss of the season.
Amir, a native of Israel, finished the weekend a flawless 6-0, combined, in singles and doubles. Cadieux, was 5-1 over the weekend and only lost his doubles match with partner Roman Turtygin against CSU.
Southern Illinois is 2-2 this season, with wins against SIUE (5-2) and Butler (5-2) and losses to then-No. 67 Purdue (7-0) and Austin Peay (4-3). Martijin Admiraal, Badr Cherradi, Brandon Florez and Stanislas Rodier each have two wins this season for the Salukis. SIU has not been action since Feb. 19 when it took on SIU-Edwardsville.
The Panthers are 0-4 this season and are coming off of a 7-0 loss to Ball State Feb. 24. Eastern Illinois and Northern Illinois have shared common opponents this season Dayton and IPFW. The Flyers defeated the Panthers, 5-2, while the Mastodons dropped EIU, 6-1. Matyas Hilgert is the singles leader for the team with two wins at No. 2. In doubles the Panthers are 5-7 overall.
Wisconsin started the season as a nationally ranked team, as high as No. 69, and are 3-4 this season, with wins over Marquette (5-2), Western Illinois (7-0) and Butler (6-1). Frederik Ask has been the anchor in the lineup for the Badgers with his 4-3 record at No. 1. UW was last in action Feb. 25, dropping its contest against No. 35 Minnesota, 6-1.
Following its three match weekend, the Huskies will return to the court for a March 9 contest against Brown at Boylan Tennis Center in Rockford.
