Five-thousand miles is a long way to travel to play tennis.

Erik Andersch, the Huskies’ No. 3 singles player, made the trip from Sweden with the help of his friend Ova Pipkorn.

Pipkorn convinced Andersch to come to the U.S. to pursue his academic and tennis ambitions. Pipkorn plays for Iowa State, NIU’s Saturday road foe.

NIU (2-3) takes on Iowa State at 3 p.m. and will also battle host Iowa, which NIU coach Charles Merzbacher said has an outside chance of winning the Big Ten.

“I hope Erik gets to play (Pipkorn),” NIU’s Mats Persson said. “I don’t think (Pipkorn) has ever beaten Erik.”