The NIU women’s tennis team heads to South Bend, Ind., this weekend to participate in the North Star Conference Championship.

Along with the Huskies, the other conference teams are host Notre Dame, Marquette, DePaul, Valparaiso and Dayton. Notre Dame won the title last year, with the Huskies taking second.

Earlier this season, NIU has lost to Notre Dame 9-0 and has lost twice to Marquette, 5-4 and 5-2. The second loss to the Warriors came last weekend at the Huskie Tournament when NIU had to default two games because of injuries.

Instead of the usual dual matches, this tournament will consist of flighted matches. Flighted matches occur when all the No. 1 singles players are seeded and then play against each other, then the No. 2 singles are seeded, then No. 3 singles and so on. This process continues all the way through doubles competition.

Despite having a team record of 2-5, NIU head coach Patty Fick hopes to improve on last year’s finish.

“If we can pull together as a team and play our best, I strongly believe we can win this,” she said.

Notre Dame is expected to grab all the number one seeds in all positions, with Marquette and NIU to share the No.2 and No. 3 seeds.

The Huskies’ No. 1 singles player, Natasha Koprivica, said she is looking forward to playing against Marquette’s Meg Mulcahey, who has beaten Koprivica twice in the last two weekends. Both matches have gone three games.

“Last weekend, I was really tired when I played her,” said Koprivica, whose record is 6-5. “I had played for seven hours with only a one-hour break. I think I can beat her this weekend.”

Besides Koprivica, the positions of the NIU players for this weekend are, in order from No. 2 singles to No. 6 singles, LeeAnn Milne, Heidi VanLankvelt, Natacha Kluft, Amy Andersen and Kris Whitney. The doubles teams are No. 1—Koprivica-Milne, No. 2—VanLankvelt-Kathi Kennedy and No. 3—Kluft-Andersen.

Milne is recuperating from a pulled hamstring she suffered last weekend, but is expected to play in the tourney.

The Huskies wrap up their fall schedule next weekend when they compete in the Ball State Triangular. The team will return to action Feb. 5-6, 1988, when the compete in the Michigan State Triangular.