Women's Tennis | April 8
DeKALB, Ill. – Northern Illinois University senior Iullia Dmitrieva closed out Eastern Michigan's Grace Whitney with a 6-4 win in the second set and
was mobbed by her teammates as her victory at No. 6 singles gave the Huskies a 4-3 win over the Eagles Friday at the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House.
The victory was NIU's first in Mid-American Conference play this season as the Huskies improved to 14-10 overall.
"It was a great win," said NIU head coach
Eric Burns. "I'm really proud of the team and how they fought today. This has been a tough stretch for us, we're playing a little shorthanded [due to injury], so it's great to see everyone step up and that's what happened today. Iullia's win to clinch it after the score was tied 3-3 in the second set was clutch. She lost to the same [opponent] last year so for her to get that win and get us the win was just a great effort."
NIU was forced to come back and win four of the six singles matches after dropping the doubles point to fall behind 1-0.
No. 1 singles player Erika Dmitriev put the Huskies on the board with a 6-2, 6-3 win and the team's split the points at No. 3 and 4 singles with NIU's
Reagan Welch posting a 6-2, 6-1 win at the No. 3 spot. As
Christy Robinson and Dmitrieva began their matches on the fifth and sixth lines, respectively, EMU took a 3-2 lead with a three-set win at No. 2 singles by Sabina Brichackova.
Robinson made quick work of EMU's Julia Piatek with a 6-2, 6-0 win to tie the match at 3-3, leaving it up to Dmitrieva and Whitney at No. 6. Dmitrieva, recently inserted into the singles line-up due to injury, took the first set 6-3. With the score tied 3-3 in the second set, she broke Whitney's serve to go ahead 4-3 and was able to close out the match from there.
"All the singles wins were excellent," Burns said. "Erika beat a really good player at one. We've been working hard with her to get her confidence back so I'm really happy for her. Christy played well, as did Reagan. It was a good team effort across the board. We got the win and that was big for us, we needed that. Hopefully that gets us going here going into these last four matches."
NIU now travels to Kalamazoo, Michigan to face Western Michigan on Sunday at Noon CT.
-- NIU --
