CINCINNATI – The Northern Illinois University women's team was edged out, 4-3, to Cincinnati at the Western Athletic Club on Saturday.
 
"This was a very competitive college tennis match," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "It's exactly what you want this early in the season. Both teams fought extremely hard. The match basically came down to an extremely close doubles' point and unfortunately, we just came up a little short.
 
Cincinnati (1-0) took the 1-0 lead after taking the doubles point, by winning the tiebreaker at No. 2 doubles.
 
After falling behind 2-1 on the afternoon after a loss at No. 5 singles, Paula Veyhle gave NIU (0-3) its first point of the day with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Anna Philp at No. 6 singles. Cincinnati took the next two singles matches to win the day.
 
Senior Maria Potsi and freshman Anastasia Rakita scored the other two victories for the Huskies at Nos. 1 and 2 singles, respectively. Potsi rallied from a 7-5 setback in the first set to win the next two, 6-4, 6-3. Rakita also battled back from a 7-5 first set loss, winning the final two sets, 7-6, 6-1.
 
"We're really proud of how hard our team fought," Burns said. "This would have been a huge step for our program to get the win, but even with the loss, we can take a lot away from this. Hopefully it gives us confidence going forward. Cincinnati has a great team and we really battled them to the end today. Now we'll head home and start preparing for Valpo and our first home match."
 
The Huskies return to the action Friday when they welcome Valparaiso to Chick Evans Field House for the home opener. Match is set to begin at 6 p.m. CT.
 
-NIU-