NIU women’s tennis (4-1) took two 7-0 victories on Saturday against the University of Northern Iowa (0-1) and Eastern Illinois University (0-2).
“I thought we competed well, especially in the first match,” said NIU women’s tennis head coach Eric Burns. “I thought we were very clean with Northern Iowa. The second match, we got a little sloppy in some places. Some of that was Eastern Illinois doing some things to change up their game styles and making us work, which we didn’t always handle the best. I thought we were able to fight through when we needed to, to pull out a couple of third sets, and finish off the day.”
NORTHERN IOWA
Senior Reagan Welch and junior Jenna Horne took a 6-1 set against freshman Abbie Peterson and junior Lasya Mylavarapu.
In a dominant set, junior Isabella Righi and freshman Lucia Yecora defeated junior Kanyanut Sudsaard and senior Kim Zizek by a score of 6-0.
Junior Nataly Ninova and senior Maria Dzemeshkevich were up 4-2 against senior duo Darta Dalecka and Lorena Cardoso when the match was ruled unfinished.
The Huskies swept singles matches, dropping just 10 games in five matches played.
NIU freshman Irmak Budak bested Cardoso in 6-2, 6-1 sets.
Dzemeshkevich dominated a 6-1, 6-2 match against Zizek.
After a 6-2 first set, Ninova swept a 6-0 second set to get the win against Sudsaard.
Yecora dominated her match against Peterson, taking 6-1, 6-0 sets.
Horne overpowered Mylavarapu, also in 6-1, 6-0 sets.
Righi was awarded the win, and the point for NIU, off a forfeit from Northern Iowa.
EASTERN ILLINOIS
Yecora and Welch won a 6-1 contest against freshman Ornella Lomenzo and senior Luisa Renovales Salazar.
NIU freshman Theodora Kousiou and Horne took a 6-3 victory against sophomore Charleigh Fay and junior Emma Pilipovic-Kljajic to clinch the doubles point for the Huskies.
In the only loss of the day, Ninova and Dzemeshkevich lost a close 7-5 match against junior Aleyla Wooten and sophomore Michelle Kostadinova.
Budak defeated Fay in 6-2, 6-4 sets, while Ninova won a 6-2, 6-0 match against Kostadinova.
After a 6-0 sweep in the first set, Righi took a 6-2 second set to get the win against Pilipovic-Kljajic.
Two Huskies saw first to 10 tiebreaker sets, both coming out on top.
Dzemeshkevich dominated a 6-1 first set against Lomenzo and lost a close 5-7 second set. In the tiebreaker, Dzemeshkevich took a 10-4 victory to secure the win.
“It was difficult in the second set,” Dzemeshkevich said. “I was winning and then I lost four deciding points in a row, and I kind of got upset. In the tiebreaker, I just tried to go play, forget what happened in the second set and get every point.”
After taking a 6-3 first set, Welch dropped a 4-6 second set against Renovales to send the match to a tiebreaker. Welch won a 10-4 tiebreaking set for the victory.
Burns explained the key for the Huskies in the third set tiebreakers.
“Holding it together mentally, mental focus and holding the emotions in check,” Burns said. “Part of what got us to those tiebreakers, I believe in most cases, is that we didn’t handle some situations well. Resilience. Resilience so that when you get into that super breaker, you’re showing some resilience. Maybe things didn’t go that well in the second set, but fight back. Get up off the mat and go at it.”
Off a forfeit from Eastern Illinois, NIU sophomore Sydney Paradise was granted the point for NIU, as well as the win.
UP NEXT
“We’ve got two tough teams,” Burns said of next weekend’s matchups. “Wisconsin’s been a top 30 team, they were fourth in the Big Ten last year, they’re very good. We’ll be up there, but Milwaukee is another dangerous team from the Horizon League. We’re just looking to get up there and compete hard in both matches and see what we can do.”
The Huskies face the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee at 1 p.m. on Friday at the Nielsen Tennis Center. At 5:30 p.m. the Huskies will take on the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the same venue. Live stats will be updated on SideArm Stats