DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team split a pair of matches at the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House Saturday, dropping a 5-2 decision to Drake before scoring a 6-1 win over Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Playing with three new doubles teams and a rearranged line-up with several players out due to injury, the Huskies won the doubles point versus Drake, the defending Missouri Valley Conference champions. The Huskies' new No. 1 doubles team of
Nataly Ninova and
Erika Dimitriev won 7-5 over Mille Haagensen and Darinka Stepan, and freshmen
Isabella Righi and
McKenna Chudy paired up for a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles.
Ninova also earned the Huskies' singles win, 6-3, 6-2, over Stepan. At No. 1 singles, NIU's
Diana Lukyanova won the first set and led in the second before falling 2-6, 7-5, 6-4.
"We competed well against Drake, it was a good match," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "We had our chances and it was encouraging to see us win the doubles point with three new teams. Nataly had a nice win at No. 3 and if Diana had pulled that out at No. 1, it might have gotten interesting. We played pretty well and put up a good fight today. Overall it was a pretty good day."
NIU opened the match versus UW-Whitewater with 6-0 wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles by the teams of Dimitriev and Ninova and Lukyanova and Righi, respectively. The three freshmen in the Huskies' singles line-up, Ninova, Righi and Chudy, won in straight sets at No. 3, 4 and 6, respectively. Dimitriev and Lukyanova added wins at the first and second singles spots as well.
"We played without two starters and even several of our reserves today," Burns said. "The freshmen are playing really well. Nataly moved up to the No. 3 spot today and played great both in singles and doubles. We'll take what we did today and take a little time to rest and recover, then get ready for MAC play."
NIU (9-8) will take the next two weeks off before opening Mid-American Conference play on Sunday, March 19 at Bowling Green.
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