It was a weekend of facing the past and the future for the NIU women’s tennis team.

The Huskies hosted past Mid-American Conference foe Ball State Saturday at the West Campus Courts and won 6-3. NIU had already defeated future North Star Conference opponent Marquette 7-2 on the same courts Friday.

NIU had four singles players and two doubles teams go unbeaten on the weekend. Kris Whitney picked up two wins at No. 5 and No. 4 singles, respectively. Amy Anderson, Heidi VanLankvelt and LeeAnne Milne were also victorious in both of their singles matches. The doubles pairs of Milne-Anderson and Whitney-VanLankvelt also were two-time winners.

Coach Patty Fisk was forced to juggle her lineup for Saturday’s match against the Cardinals because of a foot injury to regular No. 2 singles player Sari Dinerman. Midway through the second set of her match with Marquette’s Jenny Luke, Dinerman sprained her foot, which caused the forfeit. Fick called on freshman Rene Nicholaou to step into the Huskie lineup against Ball State, but Nicholaou lost 6-0, 6-1 to Beth Nikels.

The Huskies improved their record to 5-6 with the wins and continue to show steady progress to their coach.

“We’re learning to be more patient on the baseline, and more consistent,” Fick said. “We were trying to put the ball away too quickly and at inopportune times before. Good teams have that consistency and know when to go for the kill. We’re learning that, and it’s working.”

NIU returns to action Thursday at Illinois at 2:30 p.m.