DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team added another accolade to its historic season of firsts Wednesday when the Huskies earned the No. 9 spot in the 2025 ITA Postseason Midwest Region Rankings.
 
NIU, which has not previously been ranked in the Top 10 teams in the final regional rankings, came in just behind No. 8 DePaul and ahead of No. 10 UIC. The top seven teams in the Midwest include six teams from the Big Ten Conference and Notre Dame, which are all ranked in the Top 75 in the country.
 
"We are really excited and honored to be recognized as a top team in the region," said NIU head coach Eric Burns. "The ITA Midwest is one of the toughest and most competitive regions in the nation.  Our team competed well and at a very high level this season. I am really happy their hard work paid off with some historic results. Hopefully we can continue to build off of this year's success in the future and keep the momentum going forward."
 
After winning the Mid-American Conference West Division, earning the program's highest seed in the MAC Tournament and advancing to the MAC Championship match for the first time, NIU earned a bid to the NIT Championships in Rome, Georgia, becoming the first Huskie women's tennis team to play in a postseason championship.
 
The Huskies won 22 dual matches to break a 40-year-old school record, three Huskies were named to the All-MAC team, the most in school history.  During the year, four different singles players and one doubles team earned MAC Player of the Week honors, the most in one season for NIU.  
 
Head coach Eric Burns completed his sixth season at the helm of the Huskie program with 93 dual match wins, the second-highest total in program history while his .581 winning percentage tops the all-time list. 
 
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