DeKALB, Ill. – Tiebreakers determined Friday's Mid-American Conference women's tennis match between Northern Illinois University and Miami with the RedHawks winning four of the five tiebreakers played to claim a 5-2 win at the Nelson Tennis Center inside Chick Evans Fieldhouse.
 
"It's disappointing, at the same time, it's encouraging because we did play well, and fought really hard today," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "The silver lining is that we did compete 90 percent of the time. In the tight situations, we didn't do what we needed to do and that was ultimately the deciding factor in this match."
 
The RedHawks (8-7, 2-0 MAC) won the first tiebreaker of the day by a 7-5 score at No. 1 doubles to give Miami the doubles point as Catherine Denysiewicz-Slowek and Nishitha Saravanan claimed the win over NIU's Isabella Righi and Diana Lukyanova.
 
"We gave the doubles away," Burns said. "We were up 4-1 at No. 3, we had a 4-0 lead in the tiebreaker at No. 1 and we lost six straight points.  We did that three times today."
 
Lukyanova came back in singles to defeat Saravanan, 6-4, 6-4, to record NIU's first point, and her 80th career singles win. The Moscow, Russia native tied Anna Widen (1996-2000) for second place on the Huskies' all-time singles win list.  
 
"Diana played great against a really great player," Burns said. "She had leads and closed them out in the singles. She did a nice job. We had the match-ups we wanted today, we just didn't close this thing out."
 
Miami won three-set matches at No. 2 and No. 3 singles to clinch the win for the RedHawks with both matches going to a third-set tiebreaker.  The final two matches of the day also each ended in tiebreakers after the second set with the Huskies' Reagan Welch recording NIU's lone tiebreaker win to defeat Miami's Sarah Dev, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) at No. 5 singles.
 
The Huskies fall to 11-7 overall, 0-2 in the MAC with the loss. NIU takes on Western Michigan Sunday at approximately 2 p.m. at the Nelson Tennis Center.
 
Miami (Ohio) 5, NIU Huskies 2
March 22, 2024 at DeKalb, Illinois
(Nelson Tennis Center)
 
Singles
1. Diana Lukyanova (NIU-W) def. Nishitha Saravanan (MIAOH) 6-4, 6-4
2. Catherine Den-Slowek (MIAOH) def. Erika Dimitriev (NIU-W) 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5)
3. Emilia Valentinsson (MIAOH) def. Nataly Ninova (NIU-W) 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5)
4. Sara Zalukar (MIAOH) def. Isabella Righi (NIU-W) 6-3, 6-3
5. Reagan Welch (NIU-W) def. Sarah Dev (MIAOH) 6-4, 7-6 (7-5)
6. Lauren Joyce (MIAOH) def. Jenna Horne (NIU-W) 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
 
Doubles competition
1. Catherine Den-Slowek/Nishitha Saravanan (MIAOH) def. Diana Lukyanova/Isabella Righi (NIU-W) 7-6 (7-5)
2. Erika Dimitriev/Nataly Ninova (NIU-W) vs. Emilia Valentinsson/Sara Zalukar (MIAOH) 6-5, unfinished
3. Sarah Dev/Lauren Joyce (MIAOH) def. Anastasia Rakita/Reagan Welch (NIU-W) 6-4
 
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (4,1,2,3,6,5)
 
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