No team in the Mid-Continent Conference can “touch” this NIU men’s tennis team.

The Huskies proved Saturday, with an 8-1 victory over Western Illinois (now 15-3), that no team in the M-C can come close to Charles Merzbacher’s group.

“It was great to get the win after singles,” Merzbacher said. “We wanted to sweep doubles just as much. We want everyone to know we intend to be dominant from start to finish in even regular season matches.”

Dave Settelmyer started the dominance quickly. He gave NIU (16-8, 6-0) a 1-0 lead after dismantling Brian Gahan 6-2, 6-1 in about 40 minutes at No. 6 singles.

Steve Senter walked off the court close behind Settelmyer with a 6-0, 6-4 win over WIU’s Dean Russell at No. 3. “(Senter) just destroyed me in the first set,” Russell said. “He hit winners off everything.”

Mats Persson continues to roll. He handled Joel Tennison 6-3, 6-4. The two No. 1 players held serves throughout the second set, but after questioning one of Tennison’s calls, Persson went to work. The Swede broke Tennison to tie 4-4, then finished off the match.

Erik Andersch (No. 2) and Dustin Dobrin (No. 4) both won 3-setters to clinch the meet for the Huskies.

Andersch, a senior, said his freshman opponent Matt Runyan’s persistence in the 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 match shocked him. “(Runyan) played well. He surprised me,” Andersch said. “I won the match with experience.”

Dobrin won 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 over WIU’s John Bremner. “I’m concentrating a lot better in (3-setters) now,” Dobrin said. “I feel I’m hitting the ball better, but the difference in the match was Bremner made a lot more mistakes. I waited for him to make the mistakes.”

Craig Grave spelled doom for the Huskies’ No. 5 player Paul Gill, whose 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 loss to Grave kept NIU from sweeping.

An inspired No. 3 doubles team of Gill and Settelmyer, playing only their second match together, wiped out a tough WIU team of Bremner and Gahan 6-0, 7-5. Bremner and Gahan played No. 1 doubles for WIU in the fall season.

Andersch and Senter rolled past Runyan and Russell 6-1, 6-4 at No. 1 doubles. “We’re a very aggressive team,” Andersch said. “I like playing with a guy who takes chances like Steve. I’m very conservative.”

At No. 2 doubles, Persson and Dobrin had to play a tie-breaker after splitting the first two sets 3-6, 7-6, (10-8). Since this was the last match on the court the match was decided by a tie-break which Dobrin and Persson won 8-6 despite being down 4-0.