Women's Tennis | March 5

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team prepared for the start of Mid-American Conference competition with a 5-2 win over Marquette in Milwaukee Wednesday.
 
The Huskies improved to 12-3 with the win, its final tune-up before taking on Eastern Michigan in the MAC opener on Sunday, March 16. NIU is off to its best start since the 2012-13 season.
 
"This was a tough match," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "We had to battle to pull this out. I thought we played pretty well, and Marquette played at a very high level today. Between this and the Cornell match last weekend, this was perfect preparation for us going into conference play."
 
NIU claimed the doubles point with wins by the No. 2 and 3 doubles pairs. Isabella Righi and Lucia Yecora scored a dominating 6-1 win at No. 2 while Reagan Welch and Jenna Horne clinched the point with a 6-3 victory on the third line.
 
Yecora continued her strong freshman campaign with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Aiyana Abbott at No. 4 singles, improving her season record to 9-1, and NIU's Maria Dzemeshkevich scored a 7-5, 6-2 victory on the top line. Both Irmak Budak and Nataly Ninova dropped their first sets, 6-2, before coming back to win their matches.  
 
"We played well in doubles to win that point and that set the tone," Burns said. "If we lose the doubles, this match gets very interesting because we lost the first set at two and three singles. But we were able to get the doubles point and flipped the first set losses, Lu [Yecora] won comfortably at four, Maria got the win at No. 1 and that was it."
 
The Huskies play host to Eastern Michigan and UW Whitewater on Sunday, March 16 at the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House with the first match getting underway at 1 p.m.
 
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