Women's Tennis | January 23

DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team downed Marquette, 6-1, at home on Friday afternoon. With the win, head coach Eric Burns earned his 400^th career victory and 96^th at NIU.

"It feels great. It's a combination of being old and having a lot of great players over the years," head coach Eric Burns said. "From day one I've been blessed to have good situations and good kids and a lot have been here."

Burns ranks 14^th among active Division I women's tennis head coaches and is in the top 50 in career winning percentage (.604). His career record now moves to 400-262, including 96-68 at NIU.

The Huskies moved to 3-1 on the season with the victory over Marquette. Courts four, five and six all went to three sets in the match.

"I thought it was a good win," said Burns. "Marquette played a really nice match today and really pushed us on a lot of courts and we were able to pull through on two of the three three-setters to finish off things. We were pushed today and that was good, that'll serve us well later on."

NIU locked in the doubles point thanks to Malika Kabdesh / Nataly Ninova and Jenna Horne / Theodora Kousiou securing victories. Kabdesh and Ninova have now won three consecutive doubles matches.

In singles, NIU secured the victory with Irmak Budak, Kousiou and Lucia Yecora winning on the top three courts.

"We started out down on several courts and kind of got ourselves into some holes and we were able to work our way in those matches, so that was good that we didn't panic in those situations," said Burns.

The Huskies finished the match off by winning two three-set tiebreakers on the final two courts thanks to Jenna Horne and Nataly Ninova.

NIU will travel to Valparaiso for a 4 p.m. match tomorrow, Jan. 24.

Doubles
Malika Kabdesh / Nataly Ninova vs. Elise Barnstedt / Emma Davis (Marquette), 6-4
Isabella Righi / Lucia Yecora vs. Aiyana Abbott / Elena Duva (Marquette), 5-4 (unfinished)
Theodora Kousiou / Jenna Horne def. Luciana Mendoza / Maria Poon (Marquette), 6-2

Singles
Irmak Budak def. Elise Barnstedt (Marquette) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4
Theodora Kousiou def. Emma Davis (Marquette)  7-5, 6-3
Lucia Yecora def. Maria Poon (Marquette) 6-3, 6-4
Aiyana Abbott (Marquette)  def. Malika Kabdesh 6-4, 5-7, 6-1
Nataly Ninova def. Luciana Mendoza (Marquette)  6-0, 4-6, 10-3
Jenna Horne def. Elena Duva (Marquette) 6-0, 4-6, 10-8