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AKRON, Ohio -- The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team dropped a 6-1 decision to Akron in Mid-American Conference play on Friday afternoon, but senior Nelle Youel recorded another historic victory in the match.

NIU's loss as a team dropped the Huskies (11-7, 2-5 MAC) out of the top six in the MAC standings, with the Zips (11-11, 3-5 MAC) climbing into the crucial sixth spot.

But with her 27th singles victory of the 2014-15 season, Youel (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) tied her own school record for singles wins in an entire season, previously set in 2012-13. The senior from nearby Crystal Lake, Ill., who owns every major career NIU women's tennis program record, is now 19-0 (7-0 MAC) in singles in the spring 2015 campaign. She also won eight matches during the fall.

Unfortunately, Youel's 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 1 singles over Akron's Karolina Maksimova was the only point the Huskies won on Friday after suffering several close defeats to the Zips in other matches.

NIU head coach Tanya Gombera described her team's defeat to Akron as a difficult one to take after it eliminated her team from MAC Tournament contention due to tiebreakers that make it impossible for NIU to return to the top six of the conference standings.

But Gombera is hoping the Huskies can have a better performance tomorrow in their season finale.

"It was definitely a tough loss, but today I think Akron out-played us in several key moments, so we must give credit to Akron," Gombera said. "Tomorrow is another day, and we are hoping to come out strong against Buffalo."

The NIU women's tennis team will finish its season when the Huskies face Buffalo tomorrow afternoon in Akron.

Nelle Youel can set the NIU all-time record for singles wins in a year and finish her undefeated spring singles campaign with another individual victory.

Akron 6, NIU 1

Doubles
No. 1: Karolina Maksimova / Shannon Newnes (UA) vs. Nelle Youel / Arantza De La Torre (NIU), unfinished
No. 2: Martina Zerbola / Sophia Geier (UA) def. Cristina Alvarez / Abigail Dekkinga, 6-4
No. 3: Ariadna Blinova / Olga Shkundina (UA) def. Evelyn Youel / Mary Malkin, 6-1

Singles
No. 1: Nelle Youel (NIU) def. Karolina Maksimova, 6-1, 6-1
No. 2: Martina Zerbola (UA) def. Cristina Alvarez, 6-4, 6-2
No. 3: Olga Shkundina (UA) def. Mary Malkin, 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5)
No. 4: Ariadna Blinova (UA) def. Arantza De La Torre, 6-1, 6-3
No. 5: Sophia Geier (UA) def. Evelyn Youel, 6-0, 6-3
No. 6: Shannon Newnes (UA) def. Abigail Dekkinga, 6-0, 6-2

--NIU--