DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team improved its season record to 7-6 with a pair of 7-0 wins Saturday at the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House. In its first match of the day, the Huskies improved their record against in-state competition to 4-1 with a 7-0 win over Western Illinois. In the afternoon match, NIU defeated Cardinal Stritch, 7-0, to record its third straight shutout.
"Another solid day to build off of yesterday's great result," said head coach Eric Burns. "I thought we responded really well in a hard-fought match with Western Illinois. They were much improved from a year ago and really made us work so it was great to see us fight through some tough matches. The match with Cardinal Stritch was a carryover from the first win. We were solid across the board, and we got a lot of people some opportunities this weekend. We hope to build off this momentum heading into a tough match versus South Dakota on Friday."
With the Huskies'
Erika Dimitriev and
Anastasia Rakita, who have held down the No. 1 and 2 singles position and formed NIU's No. 1 doubles team, sitting out the day's action, NIU displayed its depth.
Versus WIU, NIU handily earned the doubles point even with new pairings at the No. 2 and 3 doubles positions. The duos of
Isabella Righi and
Diana Lukyanova and
Angelica Ross and
Jenna Horne each won their matches by 6-3 scores to give, while
Nataly Ninova and
Reagan Welch moved up from the No. 2 spot to earn a 6-4 victory at No. 1 doubles.
Righi scored the first singles point for NIU with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 4 singles, followed by straight set wins by Lukyanova (6-3, 6-2) at No. 1 and Ninova (7-5, 6-2) in the No. 3 singles position. Ninova's win clinched the match for the Huskies. After coming back to win the second set, Welch won her match at No. 2 singles in a super tiebreaker, 11-9. Playing in her first singles match of 2023, Ross won a second set tiebreaker (7-1) and earned the win by taking the super tiebreaker 11-9. Horne earned her third singles win of the year with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 6.
The afternoon match saw similar results. In doubles, the freshman duo of Horne and
McKenna Chudy came away with a 6-1 win at the No. 3 spot, while Ninova and Welch improved their record to 8-4 on the season with a 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles.
All of the Huskies' singles win came in straight set fashion, including Chudy's 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 6 singles for her first NIU win in dual match play. Lukyanova, Welch and Righi each gave up just two games in their afternoon matches.
NIU is next in action next Friday when they face South Dakota in Sioux Falls before heading to Minnesota to play St. Thomas and Winona State on Sunday.
For complete scores and results, see links to the PDFs above.
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