Quality, not quantity, is often a better measure of effort.

At least NIU men’s tennis coach Chuck Merzbacher thinks so.

While the three Huskie entries in the Thursday through Sunday Intercollegiate Tennis Coaches Association (ITCA)/Rolex Midwest Indoor Regional Meet met with early exits, the results were still encouraging to the NIU men’s tennis boss.

Matt Green defeated Purdue University’s Lisandro Lorenzinin, 6-2, 6-4 before losing a 6-1, 6-3 contest to No. 21-seeded Jeff Giaraldo of Northwestern University. His singles teammates didn’t have luck with the draw as Dustin Dobrin was paired with the No. 2 seed, University of Notre Dame’s Chuck Coleman, while Marty Engel had to face No. 9 seeded Giora Payes of Northwestern. Dobrin was a 6-3, 7-5 victim while Engel was beaten 6-1, 6-4.

“We really didn’t have any bad losses. We lost only to seeded people, which means it takes some of the area’s best to knock us out. I really believe this was the best effort yet in my three trips to the Rolex. We saw a lot of improvement and Dustin, who led one of the top players in the country by a 3-0 count in the second set, found out that he can really play with the best,” Merzbacher said.

NIU’s doubles combination of Engel-Green were 6-2, 6-3 victims in a match with the University of Minnesota’s Roger Anderson and Dean Hlushko.