Full Results Available Below

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team defeated Bowling Green for the first time since 2004, winning its Mid-American Conference opener on Friday by a score of 4-3 at the Keefe Courts in Bowling Green, Ohio.

The Huskies (10-3, 1-0 MAC) were victorious in their conference opener for the first time since 2009 and continued an impressive and historic 2015 spring campaign under first-year head coach Tanya Gombera, who was thrilled with the decisive contributions of her freshmen on Friday.

"Today wasn't even one of our best performances, but we were able to pull out a victory against Bowling Green. I am so proud of our freshmen, as they were able to pull out victories at key spots in the lineup to help us earn the team win," Gombera said.

Senior Nelle Youel (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) led the way and improvedto 23-0 this spring overall with her 13th consecutive No. 1 singles victory in a straight-set triumph over the Falcons' top player Megan Miller.

But it was the singles victories by freshmen Jennifer Gates (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) and Abigail Dekkinga (Allegan, Mich./Allegan) and the doubles victory by the rookie tandem of Gates and Evelyn Youel (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) that lifted the Huskies to the four team points neccessary to earn the team win.

NIU also improved to 3-1 in matches decided by one point this season.

The Huskies will hope to add another MAC win on Sunday when they face Miami (7-6, 1-0 MAC), who defeated Western Michigan on Friday in its MAC opener, at the Hepburn Tennis Courts in Oxford, Ohio. The match will start at 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT.

"We are looking forward to playing Miami on Sunday," Coach Gombera added. "We will continue to work on the things that we need to improve on."

NIU 4, Bowling Green 3

Doubles
No. 1: N. Youel/Alvarez (NIU) unf. vs. Hutchison/Miller (BGSU), 5-3
No. 2: E. Youel/Gates (NIU) def. Farrar/Witt (BGSU), 6-3
No. 3:De La Torre/Malkin (NIU) def. Plaszewski/Seeley (BGSU), 6-0

Singles
No. 1:N. Youel (NIU) def. Miller (BGSU), 6-3, 6-2
No. 2:Hutchison (BGSU) def. Alvarez (NIU), 6-4, 6-3
No. 3:Witt (BGSU) def. Malkin (NIU), 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-4)
No. 4:Plaszewski (BGSU) def. De La Torre (NIU), 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 5:Gates (NIU) def. Farrar (BGSU), 6-2, 6-1
No. 6:Dekkinga (NIU) def. Seeley (BGSU), 6-0, 6-0

--NIU--