DeKALB, Illinois – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team will host the NIU Huskie Fall Indoor Invitational this weekend in the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House with action beginning at 9 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 28-30.  Athletes from NIU, St. Thomas, Lewis and Chicago State will compete in a "hidden dual" format in singles with one main doubles draw.
 
Line-ups and results for the tournament can be found on the ITA website (wearecollegetennis.com) HERE.  The general public is welcome, and admission is free.
 
"We're excited to get to play a tournament here at home," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "We hope to get some fans out to watch the team. We're ready to go. We had a great week of practice.  We had energy every day and everyone was working hard. I think we're primed to have a good tournament. I hope we come out and play as well as we've been practicing."
 
Friday and Saturday competition will open with doubles in the morning, followed by singles play. NIU will play Chicago State in singles on Friday, St. Thomas on Saturday and Lewis on Sunday although there will be additional matches featuring Huskie players throughout the weekend.
 
Burns said the fall tournaments have been a good opportunity to gauge the readiness of the team and to prepare for the dual match season this spring.
 
I think we're learning a lot, especially with so many new players," Burns said. "We're learning that we're a deep team, we have a lot of potential, and there are still some things we want to get better at, especially in doubles. We've been working to find combinations.  We have such a large team, it's imperative we give everyone a chance to get some opportunities. Everyone should play some matches this tournament."
 
The Huskies are coming off a good showing in singles at the ITA Midwest Regional in Ann Arbor, Mich. last weekend with Erika Dimitriev, Isabella Righi and Anastasia Rakita each earning wins in the singles qualifying first round. Rakita went on to win her second-round match and joined Huskie teammate Diana Lukyanova in the main draw where both were unable to advance past the first round. 
 
Reagan Welch and Righi each also picked up wins in the consolation matches during the tournament.
 
"It was great for us to win some rounds here and there and even get some wins in consolation [at the ITA Regional]," Burns said. "There were even some good losses, we played all Big Ten opponents on the last day, and we had some positive results, so it will be interesting to see what happens as we go forward. We're pretty interchangeable in some spots, so it's exciting to continue the work and see us develop this fall."
 
Righi, a freshman from Palma de Majorca, Spain, leads all Huskies with a 5-2 record while playing in two tournaments this fall, while Welch is 4-2
 
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