After splitting their first two meets this season, the men’s tennis team dropped a pair of matches to Omaha Friday and a match against Wisconsin Sunday.

The Huskies fell in all three matchups despite stand out performances by first-year David Pata, who won two singles matches and swept all doubles sets with his partner, senior Erich Schuette.

Head Coach Patrick Fisher told the NIU Athletic department the team didn’t come out of the weekend with much to work with.

“Obviously we got nothing out of this weekend,” Fisher said. “Granted, we are playing an unbelievable schedule this year, but I’m not sure we envisioned this type of start to the season. Disappointed is an understatement; we’re not a bad team, we have to keep working and looking forward. Good things [and] big breakthroughs are coming.”

Related: Men’s tennis splits season-opening meets in Iowa

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Friday afternoon: Omaha 4, NIU 1

Pata gave the Huskies their only singles win in his opening match with Omaha, beating out fellow first-year Davis Lawley 6-3 and 7-5.

Two singles matches were ultimately left unfinished with senior Eric Marbach having his match with junior Razvan Grigorescu cut short mid-way through the third set. First-year Mikko Malinen also saw his match go unfinished against Matt Dunn, ending after one game of the third set.

The Huskies would also drop the doubles point, with Pata and Schuette winning the only set, thanks to a tiebreaker.

 

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Friday night: Omaha 4, NIU 3

Pata picked up his second victory of the day against Lawley, this time in two sets, 7-6 and 6-3.

After seeing his first match of the afternoon end early, Malinen pickedup a two-set win over Dunn to secure NIU’s second singles point.

Marbach did not have the same result, losing to Grigorescu in two sets to give Omaha one of the four singles points they would earn, ultimately being enough to secure a match victory.

NIU redeemed itself during the doubles point as Pata and Schutte helped the Huskies engineer a clean sweep of the Mavericks for the Huskies’ final point.

Sophomore Kristopher Ortega and Marbach defeated Grigorescu and Lawley 6-4 in the opening set. Malinen and sophomore Victor Spolidorio won their set 6-2 over juniors Abdoul Ouattara and Nathan Reekie. Pata and Schuette picked up their second doubles win with a 6-1 win over Dunn and first-year Ethan Henry.

 

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Sunday: Wisconsin 6, NIU 1

After dropping the first five singles points, Spolidorio secured the first and only singles point for the Huskies with a three-set 6-4, 3-6 and 10-6 win over first-year Daniel Nuzhny.

A win in the final set of the doubles point by Pata and Schuette was the only other victory the Huskies achieved in their trip to Madison.

The losses over the weekend put NIU at 1-4 in their spring season, as the team looks forward to the weekend of meets beginning with Creighton 1 p.m. Saturday at the Boylan Tennis Center in Rockford.

The team will also play a doubleheader at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday in Normal, facing off against Illinois State and Missouri-Kansas City.