NIU women’s tennis began its 2025 season with singles wins against the University of Notre Dame and Northwestern University. The Huskies competed against three schools across three days, starting with the University of Colorado, at the Northwestern Invitational.
“We went with seven and the seven who went just competed all weekend,” said NIU women’s tennis head coach Eric Burns. “They just really fought hard and really put together some really good results. Not so much wins and loses but just the way they played. It was great to see against top teams. The three teams in the tournament, besides us, will be nationally ranked in the top 75 for the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association). It was really good competition for us, and we did pick up a couple wins which gave our girls a lot of confidence and had a lot of close losses. It was really good all around to get ready for next week.”
The Huskies were swept in three doubles matches and seven singles matches against Colorado, with one match going to three sets. Junior Nataly Ninova forced three sets against Colorado graduate student Aya El Sayed. After winning the first set 7-5, Ninova dropped the next two sets 1-6, 2-6 to concede the match.
In losses against Notre Dame, Ninova and senior Maria Dzemeshkevich forced three sets in their matches before ultimately conceding. The Huskies were also swept in the three doubles matches played against Notre Dame.
Junior Jenna Horne found the first win of the weekend for NIU, defeating Notre Dame freshman Bianca Molnar in three sets. After conceding a 2-6 first set, Horne came back and took the next two sets 6-3, 6-4.
Doubles matches against Northwestern saw similar results as previous days of competition, with the Huskies coming up empty in all three matches.
Ninova played another three set match against Northwestern sophomore Autumn Rabjons, before falling in the final set.
Dzemeshkevich went back and forth against first-year Mika Dagan Fruchtman in 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7 sets to come out on top and get the win for the Huskies.
Burns explained how success against strong opponents affects the team.
“Each time we play those teams and have a good result or we get a win, it just gives them confidence and it gives the others around them confidence that they can play at a high level too,” Burns said. “We play each other day in and day out at practice, so it’s like if I can beat so and so who just beat Notre Dame, then maybe I can do it too. That’s what you need if you’re wanting to go in and eventually get to where you can maybe upset one of those teams in a team match is just that overall belief on a team that we’re capable of doing that and capable of playing at a high level.”
UP NEXT
The Huskies return to action at 1:30 p.m. Friday against Lindenwood University, before playing Saint Louis University at 8 p.m. the same day.
