Men's Tennis | April 5
Buffalo, N.Y. - The Northern Illinois University men's tennis team rallied after falling down 2-1 to defeat Buffalo 5-2 on Friday.
NIU (17-3, 6-1 MAC) earned their fifth straight MAC win and hold sole possession of first place in the league.
"It's always tough to play an opponent who has nothing to lose, but Coach Shao [Yu] and I are proud of how we responded to the conditions," head coach René Vidal said. "We look forward to our next match on Sunday."
Christopher Norlin (Stockholm, Sweden) and Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (Pamplona, Spain) won at No. 3 doubles 6-2 to open the match but Buffalo took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and 2 doubles.
As the dual moved to singles play Arrastia evened the score at 1-1with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles.
After Buffalo retook the lead at 2-1, winning at No. 2 singles, Armin Koschtojan (Salle [Haale], Germany) won his match at No. 5 singles 7-5, 6-4 to tie the score. Cheng En Tsai (Taipei, Taiwan/Abraham Baldwin CC) pushed the Huskies ahead 3-2 with a 6-2, 7-6 win at No. 1 singles.
Saul Berdullas (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) clinched the victory for NIU with a three-set win. Berdullas took the first set at No. 3 singles 6-1 before Buffalo's Michael Malkin took the second set 6-4. Berdullas clinched the win with a 6-3 win in the third set.
Christopher Norlin (Stockholm, Sweden) earned the Huskies fifth point with a three-set win at No. 6 singles by a score of 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
The Huskies return to action at 12 p.m. on Sunday, April 7 as they travel to Toledo. The match will air on ESPN+ with live scores available here.
Doubles
1.Daniils Snaiders (UB) def. Cheng En Tsai/Mikael Vollbach (NIU), 7-6
2. Michael Malkin/Theodoris Mitsakos (UB) def. Saul Berdullas/Armin Koschtojan (NIU), 6-4
3.Christopher Norlin/Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (NIU),def. Yu-Shiang/Yunhan Jiang (UB), 6-2
Singles
1. Cheng En Tsai (NIU) def. Daniils Snaiders (UB), 6-2, 7-6
2. Theodoris Mitsakos (UB), def. Mikael Vollbach 7-5, 6-1
3. Saul Berdullas (NIU) def. Michael Malkin (UB), 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
4. Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (NIU) def. Yunhan Jiang (UB), 6-2, 6-2
5. Armin Koschtojan (NIU) def. Yu-Shiang Huang (UB), 7-4, 6-4
6. Christopher Norlin (NIU) def. Finn Macnamara (UB), 6-4, 1-6, 6-2
Order of Finish
Doubles: 3, 2, 1
Singles 4, 2, 5, 1 ,3, 6
-- NIU --
