PEORIA, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University Women's Tennis team opened the spring portion of its season suffering a pair of losses at the Clubs at River City Saturday afternoon.
 
The Huskies (0-2) fell to Southwest Missouri State, 4-3, before falling to Bradley, 6-1. NIU, which is battling the flu bug, did not field a competitor at the No. 6 singles and at No. 3 doubles.
 
"After a week of girls being sick and not knowing if we would have healthy players, I felt the team competed well in two tough matches even though we were short-handed in our line-up," said NIU head coach Tanya Mahefu. "I know that there is a lot of room for improvement and hopeful we will get everyone healthy in the week to come."
 
Evelyn Youel (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South, Abigail Dekkinga (Allegan, Mich./Allegan Senior) and Brodie Walker (Bristol, England/Bristol Grammar) each posted straight set victories in NIU's match versus SEMO. However, the Huskies lost the doubles point and the match.
 
Thisuri Molligoda (Colombo, Sri-Lanka) posted the Huskies' lone victory in NIU's match versus Bradley. The Huskie freshman defeated Natalia Barbery, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
 
The NIU women's tennis team returns to the court Thursday when the Huskies travel to Wisconsin. The match begins at 1 p.m. CT
 
Southeast Missouri State 4, Northern Illinois 3
 
Doubles competition
1. Isabella Krupa/Kseniya Zonova (SEMO) def. Thisuri Molligoda/Evelyn Youel (NIU) 6-2
2. Oleksand Doroshenko/A.M. Thompson (SEMO) def. Abigail Dekkinga/Lara Slisko (NIU) 6-2
3. Anais Emelie/Maja Lundell (SEMO) def. No player/No player (NIU), by default
 
Singles
1. Oleksand Doroshenko (SEMO) def. Thisuri Molligoda (NIU) 6-1, 6-2
2. Isabella  Krupa (SEMO) def. Lara Slisko (NIU) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2
3. Abigail Dekkinga (NIU) def. Anais Emelie (SEMO) 6-4, 6-4
4. Evelyn Youel (NIU) def. Maja Lundell (SEMO) 6-4, 7-5
5. Brodie Walker (NIU) def. A.M. Thompson (SEMO) 6-1, 6-2
6. Kelly Sicha (SEMO) def. No player (NIU), by default
 
 
Bradley 6, Northern Illinois 1
 
Doubles
1. Natalia Barbery/Sandra Maletin (BRAD) def. Thisuri Molligoda/Evelyn Youel (NIU) 6-4
2. Alexa Brandt/Malini Wijesinghe (BRAD) def. Abigail Dekkinga/Lara Slisko (NIU) 8-6
3. Victoria Gonzalez/Kinga Kovacs (BRAD) def. No player/No player (NIU), by default
 
Singles
1. Sandra Maletin (BRAD) def. Lara Slisko (NIU) 6-1, 6-1
2. Thisuri Molligoda(NIU) def. Natalia Barbery (BRAD) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
3. Wijesinghe, Malini (BRAD) def. Abigail Dekkinga (NIU) 6-2, 6-1
4. Alexa Brandt (BRAD) def. Evelyn Youel (NIU) 2-6, 6-0, 6-1
5. Victoria Gonzalez (BRAD) def. Brodie Walker (NIU) 6-2, 1-6, 7-5
6. Kinga Kovacs (BRAD) def. No player (NIU), by default
 
-NIU-