DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team suffered a 6-1 setback at the hands of Toledo at DeKalb High School on Friday afternoon.
 
"We fought really hard being down two starters," NIU head coach Eric Burns said. "Doubles hurt us, getting off to that slow start there. I thought we had some close matches to where we definitely could've made this interesting. Toledo's a great team. I felt, at times, we didn't play our best, but maybe they had a lot to do with that too. They played a nice match today."
 
Diana Lukyanova provided NIU (12-12, 4-5) with a hard-fought victory at No. doubles. The Huskie freshman won the first set, 6-3, but was blanked 0-6 in the second. She fought off Toledo's Julia Kuszynski throughout the third set, taking the match with a 7-5 victory.
 
"That's really who she is, she's a fighter," Burns said of Lukyanova. "She's been in that situation a lot this year. She always hangs in and pretty gets the job done every time. I'm really proud of her. It's good to have those kinds of players on your team."
 
NIU returns to action Sunday, April 18 when the Huskies play host to Eastern Michigan at DeKalb High School. The match will begin at 11:30 a.m.
 
-NIU-