Men's Tennis | January 26

DeKalb, Ill. - The Northern Illinois University men's tennis team defeated the North Dakota Fighting Hawks by a score of 6-1 at Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House on Friday afternoon in the Huskies' first home dual of 2024.

The Huskies opened up the match by taking the doubles points as the Huskies swept all three matches. NIU won their doubles matches handily by the scores of 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1, 2 and 3 doubles, respectively.

Senior Mikael Vollbach (Rothis, Austria) picked up the Huskies' second point with a dominant 6-3, 6-0 win over UND's Jerall Yasin at No. 2 singles.

Freshman Saul Berdullas (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) took both of his sets by a score of 6-4 over Jayho Hong of North Dakota to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead in the match.

At No. 3 singles, NIU sophomore Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (Pamplona, Spain) won his first set over UND's Ethan Terry, 6-3. The second set went to a tiebreaker, which Gaztambide
Arrastia won 8-6 to clinch the win for the Huskies.

NIU senior Cheng En Tsai (Taipei, Taiwan/Abraham Baldwin) won his match in three sets over the Fighting Hawks Ange-Kevin Koua at No. 1 singles. Tsai won the first set 7-5, Koua took the second set, 6-3. Tsai then earned the win by a score of 6-2 in the decisive set.

Huskie senior Armin Koschtojan [Halle (Saale), Germany] earned the Huskies' final point of the day with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Federico Fiorda.

In the final match of the day Christo Alex of UND was able to defeat NIU's Sam Klein. After the players split the first two sets, with both going to tiebreakers, Alex earned the
Fighting Hawks lone point with a 10-8 win in the super tiebreaker to decide the match.

The Huskies will be back in action on Monday, Jan. 29 as they travel to Chicago to take on Chicago State. The dual is set for a 12 p.m. start.

NIU 6, North Dakota 1

Doubles

1. Mikael Vollbach/Cheng En Tsai def. Ethan terry/Jerall Yasin (UND), 6-2
2. Saul Berdullas/Armin Koschtojan def. Ange-Kevin Koua/Leandro Zgraggen (UND), 6-3
3. Iker Gaztambide Arrastia/Sam Klein (NIU) def. Christo Alex/Jayho Hong (UND), 6-2

Singles

1. Cheng En Tsai (NIU) def. Ange-Kevin Koua (UND) 7-5, 3-6,6-2
2. Mikael Vollbach (NIU) def. Jerall Yasin (UND) 6-3, 6-0
3. Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (NIU) def. Etha Terry (UND), 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
4. Saul Berdullas (NIU) def. Jayho Hong (UND), 6-4, 6-4
5. Armin Koscjtojan (NIU), def. Federico Fiorda (UND), 6-4, 6-0
6. Christo Alex (UND) def. Sam Klein (NIU), 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-3), 1-0 (10-8)

--NIU--