Forget the broom. Give the NIU men’s tennis team a vacuum cleaner.

The Huskies swept their four home games this weekend, losing only one match of the 36 they played. NIU had unblemished 9-0 wins over Northeastern Illinois, Western Illinois and Augustana and they topped the University of Chicago 8-1.

Although NIU coach Carl Neufeld had reason to admire his team’s entire weekend play, he focused his praise towards Kelly Holt and Tim Halligan and their doubles victory over the Leathernecks.

A last-minute change in the doubles lineups of both squads resulted in Holt and Halligan, normally NIU’s No. 3 seed combination, playing against Western’s No. 1 doubles team. Holt and Halligan regrouped from their first match defeat (3-6) in front of the bleacher-filled crowd at Gullikson Tennis Courts to win the next pair 6-2, 6-4.

“Our No. 3 team played their No. 1 team and we beat them—that was the key,” Neufeld said. “Tim and Kelly probably played their best match of the year.”

But the Western triumph had more significance to Neufeld than just fattening up the Huskies’ 21-8 record. The Huskie boss, who had earlier referred to the NIU vs. WIU match as the “Super Bowl” because of the rivalry between the two teams, had looked forward to getting the upper edge on the Leathernecks.

“Forget the Super Bowl, this is Davis Cup,” Neufeld said. “The Leathernecks are always psyched up to play us (NIU), no matter what sport it is. They’re a formidable opponent. We knew it was going to be a tough match coming in.

“Those (Western) kids played very hard and well, but they were a little weaker down the line and we were just better. There’s no shame in that for them.”

Besides Holt and Halligan, NIU’s Steve Wiere (No. 1 singles) played the only other three-set match for the Huskies in the Western contest. The rest were two-set matches.

The Huskies topped all their singles matches against Northeastern with two-set victories, led by Dan Bowers at No. 1 (6-1, 6-3) and Erik Andersch at No. 2 (6-1, 7-6).

Against University of Chicago, the Huskies had blanket two-set sweeps in the doubles’ team competition. The No. 1 seed team of Wiere-Dan Bowers paced the Huskies with a 6-2, 6-0 win.