NIU’s women’s tennis suffered a loss against James Madison University, their second of the season. Although the team dominated in doubles, they could not keep pace with the Dukes in singles and were defeated 5-2 by last season’s No. 2 seed in the Women’s Tennis Sun Belt Championship.
Duo junior Erika Dimitriev and sophomore Nataly Miroslavova Ninova defeated JMU redshirt senior Catherine Broerman and junior Hope Moulin by a score of 6-0.
Sophomore Jenna Horne and junior Reagan Welch won two sets in a row to win 7-5 against JMU sophomore Reka Matko and junior Alexandra Prudente.
“I think that the doubles was really good,” Dimitriev said. “It came down to court three and they were able to perform under pressure, which is great.”
The team was defeated in five out of six singles matches but took four of them to three sets.
Dimitriev took her singles matches against Broerman to a three setter, winning 7-6 in the first set. In the second set, she came back from 0-3 to make it 2-3 but lost 7-6, 2-6, 3-6.
“It definitely was tough,” Dimitriev said. “I had a lot of deuce points, a lot of tight games. At the end of the day, she capitalized on a few more key points than I did. That was it in the last set, but I fought hard and I did my best.”
Horne came out victorious in her singles matches against Prudente. After losing the first set 2-6, Horne came back with a 6-4 win over Prudente in the second set. Horne dominated the third set leading 4-0 with a final win of 2-6, 6-4, 10-6.
“In the first set, I wasn’t really thinking that much. I was just hitting the ball,” Horne said. “That’s what hurt me, but in the second set, I started to play more strategic. I think that’s what really helped me win the second and third set.”
NIU women’s tennis head coach Eric Burns saw improvement from Saturday’s matches.
“As far as singles score, (the team was) a little bit more consistent out there,” Burns said. “We didn’t make as many errors early on in points as we were yesterday. I felt like for the most part we were trying to dictate play and be aggressive out there.”
The Huskies will play next at 3 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House against Marquette University.
