Dropping its second Mid-American Conference matchup, NIU women’s tennis (20-5, 6-2 MAC) fell in a 5-2 loss to the Eastern Michigan University Eagles (10-11, 3-5 MAC).
“It wasn’t a great match for us,” said NIU women’s tennis head coach Eric Burns. “We got off to a poor start in doubles and just didn’t execute well today in doubles or singles.”
The Huskies continued a string of poor starts, dropping the doubles point to give the Eagles an early lead.
The No. 1 singles duo of senior Erika Dimitriev and junior Nataly Ninova were swept in a 6-0 set by Eagles seniors Sabina Brichackova and Prerna Vichare.
NIU senior Reagan Welch and junior Jenna Horne lost a 6-2 set at No. 2 singles against graduate student Marta Komar and junior Daniella Shved.
Junior Isabella Righi and freshman Lucia Yecora were up 5-3 against freshman Viki Hazmukova and sophomore Kseniia Saenko when the match was unfinished.
“We’ve got to come out with more energy and more focus. Our doubles play has not been good in MAC play, and that was a strength of ours throughout the season and then we kind of just backed off things a little,” Burns said. “We’re not playing as aggressively as we need to. We’re not as sure of ourselves as we need to be, so we’ve got to get back to believing in our doubles and what we’re doing.”
STUMBLING IN SINGLES
The Huskies’ two points on the day came from No. 5 and No. 6 singles, after conceding the first four singles matches.
Huskie senior Maria Dzemeshkevich was bested by Shved in 6-4, 6-3 set losses.
Also in 6-4, 6-3 NIU freshman Irmak Budak dropped her match at No. 2 singles against Hazmukova.
In only her second singles loss this season, Yecora was defeated by Brichackova in 6-4, 6-2 sets.
After a 6-0 first set sweep, Ninova took a 6-4 second set against Vichare to force a third set. Ninova struggled in the third set, losing 6-2 for the match.
“We were great at five and six today,” Burns said. “We moved Jenna (Horne) in a five and Isa (Righi) moved up to five. Both of them won their matchups, we just couldn’t help them anywhere else. Just lost a lot of routine balls, we were just missing today. It was maybe a bit of them (Eastern Michigan) playing pretty well and us not executing.”
Righi prevailed at No. 5 singles, taking a close 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 match against Saenko.
No. 6 singles was another win for the Huskies, with Horne defeating Komar in 6-4, 6-2 sets.
UP NEXT
The Huskies will celebrate senior day at 11 a.m. Sunday at Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House against the University at Buffalo.
