DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's tennis team will finish the regular season on Sunday, April 22, when the Huskies travel to Buffalo to meet the Bulls. The match between the Huskies and Bulls is slated to begin at 9 a.m. CT.
"It is coming down to the wire," said NIU head coach
Patrick Fisher. "There are a lot of teams bunched together for the three, four, five and six positions (in the MAC). We need a big weekend, no doubt about it. Buffalo is a good team, but we have had a good week of practice and we are looking forward to it."
NIU comes into the weekend with a 13-10 overall record, 2-4 in Mid-American Conference play. The Huskies split a pair of matches last week against Binghamton and Western Michigan. Four Huskies have won double-digit dual matches in singles play, led by 12 wins for junior
Georg Lundkvist (Linkoping, Sweden/Lindkopings Kommun); junior
Louis-Philippe Hamel (Drummondville, Quebec, Canada) and junior
Tom Hjertonsson (Gothenburg, Sweden/Akademi Båstad Gymnasium) each have 11 victories while senior
Carlos Manzanas (Madrid, Spain/IES Principe Felipe) has won 10 dual matches, including three-straight.
Lundkvist and senior
Eric Marbach (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley/University of Denver) have claimed 21 doubles wins as a pairing, including 14 in dual matches.
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, NIU is tied with Toledo for the fourth, and final, spot in the MAC Tournament. The Rockets close the regular season at Western Michigan on Saturday (April 22). Ball State is just ahead of the Huskies and Rockets at 2-3; the Cardinals face Buffalo (April 21) and Binghamton (April 23) to close the season.
Buffalo will close a busy week when it hosts NIU on Sunday; the Bulls began the week with a 6-1 win over Binghamton (April 19) and also host Ball State today (April 21). Heading into today's match with the Cardinals, UB has a 10-5 record, including a perfect 5-0 mark in league play. Ethan Nittolo has a team-high 22 singles wins for the Bulls; Hao Sheng Koay leads the team with 10 dual match wins.
The Huskies and Bulls will be meeting for the second time this season, after meeting in the league opener on March 18. Buffalo won that first matchup, 5-2; NIU picked up the doubles point and had a singles victory from Lundkvist. Three of the six singles matches went to three sets in the first meeting.
"The league tight, anyone can beat anyone on any given day," said Fisher. "We had a real tight match the first time and we are expecting another tight match this time around."
