The NIU women’s tennis team heads for Cedar Falls, Iowa, this weekend to participate in the Northern Iowa Triangular.

The Huskies, 0-1 on the season, will take on Northern Iowa at 4 p.m. today, then will face North Star Conference foe Marquette at 9 a.m. Saturday.

ead coach Patty Fick expects her team to play well in the two matches.

“I expect to go through Northern Iowa pretty easily. We’ve dominated them the past three years. They have a new coach this year, so it’s hard saying what to really expect,” she said.

Northern Iowa is 0-3 this season, losing to Central Iowa 7-2, Bradley 7-2 and to Western Illinois 8-1. The Panthers are led by Missy Brooks, their No. 1 singles player, Julie Andersen and Carolyn Smith.

As far as the Marquette match is concerned, Fick expects a tough one.

“Last season, they beat us 6-2 in a dual match, but we finished above them in the conference tournament. Jody (Bronson, Warrior head coach) has really turned them around the past couple of years. I feel we can beat them if we play well.”

Marquette’s season record stands at 4-1, losing to Notre Dame 8-1, and beating DePaul 8-1 Wednesday. The Huskies lost to Notre Dame 9-0 in their only dual match of the season.

“We should come home with our record at 2-1,” Fick said.

er optimism comes despite placing sixth out of seven teams last weekend at the Indiana Invitational.

“We played some of the toughest competition in the Midwest in that tournament.” Fick said. “These teams send players to the NCAA tournament at the end of the year. We did real well. There were matches where it took three sets to beat us.

“This will be a good, short weekend for us. It’ll be a good lead-up to our own invitational next weekend.”