First-year NIU men’s tennis coach Charles Merzbacher was feeling pretty darn good after his Huskies’ 5-4 indoor victory over Southern Illinois University Saturday at NIU’s Recreation Building.

Of course the victory and the gutty performance of his Huskies was in large measure, most responsible for his grin, his pleasure also came from the quality of play. Approximatley 80 fans watched as NIU grabbed an early 2-1 lead in the first half of singles matches. With only three courts available, only the true tennis enthusiasts got to see the best tennis of the evening. SIU claimed two of the other three singles matches for a tie heading into doubles play.

The Salukis actually took a 4-3 overall lead by winning the No. 3 doubles contest in two sets. Then the Huskies’ No. 2 combination of Mats Persson and David Settely rallied for a second-set (7-5) tiebreaker victory that gave them a 6-2, 7-6 triumph. Fittingly, the No. 1 doubles match had to be decided in three sets.

Anxiously, it took a come-from-behind effort in that third set by Greg O’Neil and Erik Andersch, who broke the Salukis service not once, but twice to emerge with a 6-3, 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 conquest.

“These type of matches symbolize good college tennis. Even battles (3-3 after singles), it comes dowm to the last few games, and the big points,” said Merzbacher. “All the time we’ve spent working on doubles paid off. I think we called good signals, meaning we found patterns in their play and returns, and then we capitalized on that. We were patient waiting for our breaks, we didn’t panic.

“This was a big win over a program that has a record of success. I think it was a team effort, everyone was playing hard. Erik deserves credit, he really came out smoking and set ther tone for his teammates to follow. The win upped NIU’s record to 5-4 heading into a three-match wekend in Iowa.