Women’s tennis shines in doubles

Huskies go 1-1 against Iowa and Northern Iowa

February 10, 2024

Sophomore Nataly Ninova (left) and junior Erika Dimitriev celebrate a point during an NIU women’s tennis home match against the University of Wisconsin on Saturday. The pair won their doubles match against the University of Iowa and each won their singles match against the University of Northern Iowa on Friday. (Courtesy of NIU Athletics)

Splitting the day with a 6-1 win against the University of Northern Iowa (0-4) and a 5-2 loss against the University of Iowa (3-5), NIU women’s tennis (3-3) earned its first road win of the season.

Against the University of Northern Iowa, the Huskies won two doubles matches, and dropped one.

Northern Iowa juniors Lorena Cardoso and Darta Dalecka defeated NIU junior Erika Dimitriev and sophomore Nataly Ninova by a score of 6-3.

Junior Reagan Welch and sophomore Jenna Horne of NIU got the best of senior Issa Sullivan and sophomore Kanyanut Sudsaard 6-4.

Senior Diana Lukyanova and sophomore Isabella Righi defeated Northern Iowa senior duo Andrijana Brkic and Kim Zizek in a 6-3 match.

In singles matches, the Huskies continued their success and came out victorious in five matches.

Lukyanova defeated Brkic in straight sets, winning 6-4, 6-1. Dimitriev won her match against Dalecka in 6-4 and 6-3 sets. Ninova fought in close sets, winning in 6-4 and 7-6 (7-4) sets against Cardoso. Righi and Horne got the best of Sudsaard and Sullivan respectively, in 6-2, 6-1 sets for Righi and 6-3, 6-2 sets for Horne.

The only Huskie loss in singles came when Welch was beaten by Zizek in 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 1-0 (10-6) sets.

Despite collecting the only NIU singles loss against Northern Iowa, Welch earned the only singles victory against the University of Iowa later in the day. Welch was able to get the win over Iowa sophomore Pia Kranholdt in 6-4, 2-6, and 1-0 sets.

The rest of the singles matches saw Iowa conquer the Huskies, all in two set matches.

In 6-0 and 6-1 sets, Iowa sophomore Daianne Hayashida handed Dimitriev a loss. Iowa junior Marisa Schmidt blew out Lukyanova in 6-1, 6-0 sets. Iowa freshman Chelsea Bluestein slid past Ninova 6-3, 6-4. Junior Barbora Pokorna defeated Righi 6-0, 6-1. In the last singles match between the NIU and Iowa, senior Vipasha Mehra bested Horne 6-4, 6-0.

The Huskies saw more success in doubles, only losing one of the three matches played.

Dimitriev and Ninova bounced back from their loss earlier in the day to overpower Bluestein and Mehra, 6-1.

Lukyanova and Righi fought and won against Hayashida and Schmidt in a 6-4 victory.

The only NIU doubles loss came when Pokorna and Kranholdt defeated Welch and Horne in a 6-1 loss for the Huskies.

NIU women’s tennis is back in action at 10 a.m. on Sunday at the XS Tennis Village in Chicago, Illinois, against DePaul University. Live stats will be available via StatsBroadcast.