DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's tennis team picked up a pair of wins Sunday in the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House, defeating Marquette 5-2 to start the day and sweeping the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 7-0 to close out the day.
The Huskies improved to 5-4 on the season with the wins, including a 4-0 mark in its home facility.
"It was definitely a solid win for the Huskies [over Marquette] today," said NIU head coach René Vidal. "I think our guys needed to build up their confidence back to what's usually the norm for us. The Notre Dame trip was a good trip for us, but it's always tough when you come out of there with two losses. So we had a positive match today. The guys played aggressively, they played smart, and now it's all about getting ready for the next one."
NIU won at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles versus Marquette.
Iker Gaztambide Arrastia and
Federico Scotuzzi scored a 6-2 win at the No. 1 spot, and
Saul Berdullas and
Sam Klein clinched the doubles point with a 7-5 win after the Golden Eagles had won at the No. 3 spot.
In singles, Gaztambide Arrastia and Scotuzzi put the second and third points on the board with straight set wins at No. 1 and No. 4, respectively. Berdullas secured the Huskie win with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-3 win over Cyrus Ahmad from the No. 2 position.
Iker Dellien Velasco added the fifth and final point for NIU with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 5 singles.
In the second match, Berdullas and Klein earned their second doubles win of the day to help NIU take the doubles point, leading the Huskies into a sweep of the singles matches with Gaztambide Arrastia, Berdullas, Scotuzzi and Dellien Velasco all earning their second wins of the day. Chia Bu Suo Nan came back to win in three sets, and Pratyaksh closed out the day with a 6-2, 6-2 win at the No. 6 spot.
The Huskies play a trio of matches in Chicago next weekend. NIU plays DePaul and Belmont on Friday, February 21 and face Eastern Kentucky on Saturday with all three matches at XS Tennis Village.
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