Adding another win to the now nine match win streak, NIU men’s tennis (11-2, 1-0 MAC) defeated Ball State University (6-6, 0-1 MAC) 5-2, earning its first conference win.
The Huskies won two of the three matches to clinch the doubles point, dropping the third to Ball State.
Seniors Cheng En Tsai and Mikael Vollbach defeated junior Nathaniel Webster and graduate student Vince Orlando in a 6-4 match. Sophomores Iker Gaztambide Arrastia and Christopher Norlin won their match against graduate student Eli Herran and redshirt junior Sajin Smith in a 7-6 (7-5) tiebreaker.
Senior Armin Koschtojan and freshman Saul Berdullas fought against Ball State junior Mason Tran and sophomore Jacks Lancaster but lost the tiebreaker that called the match, 7-6 (7-3).
NIU continued its successes in the singles, with four Huskies winning their matches.
Berdullas beat Tran in two straight 6-4 sets, while Vollbach took his victory against Orlando in 6-2, 6-3 sets. Koschtojan took two sets to tiebreakers against Lancaster, winning both 7-6 (7-3) and 7-6 (7-5).
In the match that clinched the win for NIU, Tsai came back from dropping the first set 4-6 against Webster, winning the next two sets 6-2.
Gaztambide Arrastia lost in 6-4, 6-1 sets against Herran for one of Ball State’s points, while the other came from Norlin’s 6-1, 6-0 loss against Smith.
The Huskies face their next MAC opponent at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday at the Sorensen Tennis Courts/West Hills Athletic Club in Kalamazoo, Michigan, when they take on Western Michigan University (9-3, 1-0 MAC).
