Women's Tennis | January 17
DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team secured a massive early-season victory, defeating the visiting Missouri Tigers 4-3 at Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House on Saturday afternoon.
Senior
Jenna Horne clinched the match for the Huskies with a 6-3, 6-3 singles victory.
"It's great for our program, I'm not sure we've ever had a power four win so it's pretty special for the kids," head coach
Eric Burns said. "We fought really hard all day and deserved this win. We had a lot of fight and resiliency when things weren't going their way. Really proud of their effort."
The win over the Tigers is the first win over a power conference team for NIU since at least 2005.
The Huskies locked in the doubles point after
Isabella Righi /
Lucia Yecora defeated Missouri's Alex Ackman / Lara Quaglia 6-3.
The Tigers recorded two singles wins, before Yecora secured a 6-2, 6-4 win over Andrea Artimedi to tie the match at 2-2.
Sophomore
Irmak Budak set up the clinching point for the Huskies by winning 7-6, 6-2 over Mary Brumfield.
With the match tied at 3-3, Horne jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first set and held on to win 6-3. In the second set, Horne jumped ahead 4-0 before clinching the match with a 6-3 victory over Lara Quaglia.
"Jenna is rock solid anytime the match is 3-3 and the match is down to her court. I have great confidence in her and Nataly (Ninova) too," Burns said. "When we turned to five and six and we have two seniors, I felt very confident. Those are two strong players that have plenty of experience."
The win over Missouri is the first of the dual season for NIU as the Huskies get ready to continue their non-conference schedule.
"We have to keep building, we've got a bunch of matches ahead of us," Burns said. "We've got to stay grounded and be excited for the win, but it's a long season so we have to continue to improve."
NIU caps its doubleheader tonight by hosting Chicago State at 6 p.m.
Doubles
Malika Kabdesh / Nataly Ninova def. Zoe Lazar / Korina Roso (Missouri), 6-4
Isabella Righi / Lucia Yecora def. Alex Ackman / Lara Quaglia (Missouri), 6-3
Andrea Artimedi / Mary Brumfield (Missouri) def.
Jenna Horne / Theodora Kousiou, 6-2
Singles
Irmak Budak def. Mary Brumfield (Missouri) 7-6 (7-3), 6-2
Korina Roso (Missouri) def.
Theodora Kousiou 6-4, 6-0
Alex Ackman (Missouri) def.
Malika Kabdesh 6-2, 6-3
Lucia Yecora vs Andrea Artimedi (Missouri) 6-2, 6-4
Gian Octa (Missouri) def.
Nataly Ninova 6-1, 6-3
Jenna Horne def. Lara Quaglia (Missouri) 6-3, 6-3
