Women's Tennis | February 11

DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team defeated Marquette, 4-3, in its first match of the day at Chick Evans Field House to break a nine-match losing streak to the Golden Eagles with its first win in the series since 2003. In its second match of the day, the Huskies defeated St. Francis (Ill.), 7-0, to improve to 5-2 on the season.
 
"We played very well against Marquette, it was a great match," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "We had a breakthrough in the doubles, the best we've played this year and that got us off to a really good start.  I felt if we could get the doubles point we were going to be tough to beat because we've been playing so well at the top of our singles line-up. Today, we were really strong at No. 2, 3 and 4 [singles]. They took care of business."
 
After NIU won the doubles point with wins from its No. 1 and 2 pairs, freshman Reagan Welch and sophomore Anastasia Rakita dispatched their opponents at No. 3 and No. 4 singles to put the Huskies up 3-0. Welch defeated Andie Weise, 6-3, 6-1 while Rakita had no trouble with Elizabeth Ferdman, 7-5, 6-1. NIU's No. 2 player, Diana Lukyanova, clinched the match for NIU with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Emilija Kojcic of Marquette.
 
Burns said the win can help propel the Huskies forward.
 
"They've traditionally been a lot better than us, if you look at the history they had a lot of 7-0 victories," Burns said. "This [win] means we're headed in the right direction. We're starting to build depth, get points from anywhere in the line-up. We're starting to believe we can compete against those teams so to beat a Marquette that keeps reinforcing that."
 
In the evening match, NIU cruised to a 7-0 win, surrendering just two games over the six singles matches with five 6-0, 6-0 wins. Burns mixed up his line-up as Fernanda Naves, Iuliia Dimitrieva and Paula Veyhle played at the No. 4, 5 and 6 positions and the doubles team of Veyhle and also Josefina Trella getting their first win of the year.
 
"I was really happy with the evening match, because a lot of times you have a tough match like we did with Marquette and it's easy to lose focus," Burns said. "We put some people in the line-up and they didn't have a lot of time to warm up, so for them to play like they did was great."
 
NIU next plays host to DePaul on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Chick Evans Field House.
 
Marquette vs NIU
Feb 11, 2022 at DeKalb, Illinois
(Chick Evans Field House)
 
NIU 4, Marquette 3
 
Singles
1. Natalija Popovic (MU-W) def. Erika Dimitriev (NIU) 6-4, 5-7, 7-5
2. Diana Lukyanova (NIU) def. Emilija Kojcic (MU-W) 6-3, 7-6
3. Reagan Welch (NIU) def. Andie Wiese (MU-W) 6-3, 6-1
4. Anastasia Rakita (NIU) def. Elizabeth Ferdman (MU-W) 7-5, 6-1
5. Elisabeth Desmarais (MU-W) def. Angelica Ross (NIU) 6-3, 7-6
6. Sarah Badawi (MU-W) def. Christy Robinson (NIU) 4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (10-8)
 
Doubles
1. Erika Dimitriev/Anastasia Rakita (NIU) def. Natalija Popovic/Emilija Kojcic (MU-W) 6-3
2. Diana Lukyanova/Reagan Welch (NIU) def. Andie Wiese/Giulia Turconi (MU-W) 6-2
3. Fernanda Naves/Iuliia Dmitrieva (NIU) vs. Elisabeth Desmarais/Elizabeth Ferdman (MU-W) 3-5, unfinished
 
St. Francis (Ill.) vs NIU
02/11/2022 at DeKalb, Ill.
(Chick Evans Fieldhouse)
 
NIU 7, St. Francis (Ill.) 0
 
Singles
1. Anastasia Rakita (NIU) def. Denisse Lizano (USF) 6-0, 6-0
2. Reagan Welch (NIU) def. Nikkie Christiansen (USF) 6-0, 6-2
3. Angelica Ross (NIU) def. Maria Kuzminskaya (USF) 6-0, 6-0
4. Fernanda Naves (NIU) def. Kiana Sikich (USF) 6-0, 6-0
5. Julia Dmitrieva (NIU) def. Viyaleta Hordzich (USF) 6-0, 6-0
6. Paula Veyhle (NIU) def. Yashleen Kheterpal (USF) 6-0, 6-0
 
Doubles
1. Diana Lukyanova/Reagan Welch (NIU) def. Denisse Lizano/Kiana Sikich (USF) 6-0
2. Fernanda Naves/Angelica Ross (NIU) def. Nikkie Christiansen/Maria Kuzminskaya (USF) 6-2
3. Josefina Trella/Paula Veyhle (NIU) def. Viyaleta Hordzich/Yashleen Kheterpal (USF) 6-2
 
-- NIU --