DEKALB, Ill. – The NIU wrestling team heads to Cleveland this weekend for the NCAA Championships while NIU baseball plays its first home series of the year highlighting this week in Huskie Athletics. 

Wrestling
Thursday-Saturday, March 19-21: NCAA Championships (Cleveland, Ohio) – ESPN+ | Live Scoring

The NIU Huskies wrestling team are set to be represented by Markel Baker and Devon Dawson at the 2026 NCAA Championships this week in Cleveland. This marks the 55th straight year a Huskie has competed at the national tournament. The duo, who won the MAC title in early March, open action on Thursday as Baker has the No. 8 seed at 133 pounds and Dawson at the No. 11 seed at 285 pounds.
 
Baker is currently on a 15-match win streak and will face Will Betancourt of Rider in the opening round. Baker defeated Betancourt 2-1 for the conference title while defeated four ranked opponents this season. Dawson compiled a record of 31-5 this season and has not dropped a bout since January 9 against Harvard. His opening match will come against Cal Poly's Trevor Tinker.

Baseball
Friday, March 20: vs. Miami, 3 p.m. – Live Video | Live Stats
Saturday, March 21: vs. Miami, 2 p.m. – Live Video | Live Stats
Sunday, March 22: vs. Miami, 1 p.m. – Live Video | Live Stats

NIU Baseball opens its home slate this weekend against the defending MAC champions Miami. The Huskies went 10-7 on their season-opening road trip, winning each of their first four weekends. NIU comes home to Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt & Janice Owens Park after taking one out of three games at Toledo last weekend. Senior designated hitter Caden Robertson hit a home run in each game, extending his consecutive games streak with a home run to seven. Robertson leads the MAC with 10 home runs and is tied for the league lead in RBI with 27. Senior pitcher Max Vaisvila has won each of his last three starts and is second in the MAC with 31 strikeouts. Miami is 13-5 on the year and 5-1 in the MAC. The RedHawks swept Eastern Michigan March 6-8 and took two out of three games against Bowling Green last weekend.

Softball
Friday, March 20: at Ohio, 2 p.m. – ESPN+ | Live Stats
Saturday, March 21: at Ohio, 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. – ESPN+ (Game One) | ESPN+ (Game Two) | Live Stats (Game One) | Live Stats (Game Two)

After going 2-1 in the opening weekend of conference play, the Huskies softball team hits the road for a three-game series against the Bobcats of Ohio. The Huskies and Bobcats will play a single game on Friday afternoon before concluding the series on Saturday. Ohio took the series last season in DeKalb, winning 2-1.
 
In their last outing, the Huskies defeated Buffalo 16-8 in a five-inning, snow impacted game. Lia Nance went 4-of-4 at the plate and scored two runs in the contest. Danielle Stewart went 3-of-4 at the plate, scored twice, and recorded 4 RBIs in the contest. Nance's final hit, a single, secured the walk-off win for the Huskies after they scored nine runs in the first inning.

Gymnastics
Saturday, March 21: at MAC Championships, 1 p.m. – ESPN+ | Live Stats

NIU gymnastics competes in the MAC Championships this weekend at Bowling Green. The Huskies will be competing in rotation two (Floor), four (Vault), six (Bars) and seven (Beam). The meet will be broadcasted on ESPN+.

Dawsyn Sallee finished the regular season with the sixth highest NQS score in the conference on vault with a 9.810, scoring a 9.700 or better in all 11 meets. Jocelyn Harbeck competed as an all-arounder for the first time in her career in the final meet of the season in the Minnesota quad meet, finishing with a score of 38.550. 

Mikayla Brown, Sallee and Drake White each had seven top-three finishes this season, tying for the most for the Huskies. 

Men's Tennis
Thursday, March 19: vs. Buffalo, 1 p.m.
Saturday, March 21: vs. Toledo, 11 a.m.

NIU men's tennis is back to conference play this weekend, hosting both Buffalo and Toledo. NIU (11-5, 2-1 MAC) defeated Western Michigan last Thursday, the first win over the Broncos since 2015. The Huskies have dropped their last two matches by score of 4-3, losing to Ball State and Drake. 

Iker Gaztambide Arrastia was ranked No. 63 in the latest ITA Men's Tennis DI rankings, the first NIU player to be ranked in singles since at least 2010. Gaztambide Arrastia and Nikola Puntaric are a combined 24-3 in singles this season. 

Buffalo sits atop of the MAC standings to this point with a 3-0 record in conference and 9-4 overall. Toledo is 0-3 in MAC play and 5-10 overall. 

Women's Tennis
Friday, March 20: vs. Buffalo, 12 p.m.
Sunday, March 22: at Western Michigan, 12 p.m.

The Huskies return to the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House with a pair of noon matches against Buffalo and Western Michigan. NIU split its conference matches last weekend, defeating Eastern Michigan and falling to Toledo. 

Isabella Righi and Lucia Yecora were 2-0 in doubles last weekend at No. 2 and have won three straight matches. Rebeca Garcia Miralles posted another two victories to extend her winning streak to 12 matches. 

Buffalo responded to its first loss of the season by defeating Ball State last weekend and are now 13-1. Western Michigan had its six-match winning streak snapped by Miami on Sunday and will enter the match at 9-5. 

Women's Golf
Monday-Tuesday, March 23-24: at The Nashville Invitational (Nashville, Tenn.)

The Huskies women's golf team continues the spring season as they are set to compete at the Nashville Invitational, Monday and Tuesday (March 23-24). The Huskies will be one of 16 teams competing and the second MAC team, with Ball State set to compete as well. NIU was last in action at the Valspar Invitational, March 14-15. Sophomore Mia Raines shot two over par on the first day, her lowest round of the tournament as she led NIU on the leaderboard throughout the tournament.