Women's Tennis | January 30
DeKalb, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team defeated Butler, 5-2, at home on Friday evening. Huskies have now pushed their winning streak to five matches.
"Really good, complete match by our team," said head coach
Eric Burns. "Doubles looked really good, even the matches we lost we played well. Singles was a dogfight in a couple matches."
In doubles,
Isabella Righi /
Lucia Yecora continued to push positive results for NIU, winning on court two 6-3. Minutes later,
Theodora Kousiou /
Jenna Horne gave the early nod to the Huskies with a 6-4 win over Lauren Cook / Jordan Schildcrout of Butler.
Yecora (Seville, Spain/IES V Centenario School) improved to 5-1 in singles with a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 3.
Nataly Ninova (Palma de Mallorca, Spain/IES Centre De Tecnificacio Esportiva IB) recorded a 6-4, 6-1 victory to set up
Irmak Budak (Istanbul, Turkey/SAJEV) for the clinching point.
Budak outlasted Butler's Chase Metcalf 7-6 (11-9) in the first set and cruised to a 6-2 win in the second to seal the victory.
"Lucia was on fire today, she played great," said Burns. "I think the best she's played this spring. She was being aggressive both in doubles and singles. Really the version of Lu we want to see."
NIU will host Minnesota at 6 p.m. tomorrow evening. Saturday's match against the Gophers will be the fourth power four conference team the Huskies have faced this month.
"We're going to have to play well," said Burns. "The good thing is we got them here at home. It's probably a match we're underdogs in so we like going into those types of situations. We play very loose typically in those situations. We're excited about getting to go against a high-level team like that."
Doubles
Brooke Arington/Chase Metcalf (BUTL) def.
Malika Kabdesh/
Nataly Ninova 6-4
Isabella Righi/
Lucia Yecora def. Sophie Parr/Sienna Miles (BUTL) 6-3
Jenna Horne/
Theodora Kousiou def. Lauren Cook/Jordan Schildcrout (BUTL) 6-4
Singles
Irmak Budak def. Chase Metcalf (BUTL) 7-6 (11-9), 6-2
Brooke Arington (BUTL) def.
Theodora Kousiou 7-5, 7-5
Lucia Yecora def. Sophie Parr (BUTL) 6-2, 6-3
Nataly Ninova def. Sienna Miles (BUTL) 6-4, 6-1
Jenna Horne def. Lauren Cook (BUTL) 6-4, 6-1
Elle Martin (BUTL) def.
Isabella Righi 7-6 (8-6), 6-3
