DeKALB — The women’s tennis team started its spring season Saturday with two tough losses to Southeast Missouri State University and Bradley University.

The Huskies (0-2) were defeated by Southeast Missouri State 4-3 Saturday morning before taking a bigger loss to Bradley 6-1 Saturday afternoon.

“After a week of girls being sick and not knowing if we would have healthy players, I thought the team competed well in two tough matches even though we were short-handed in our lineup,” said Head Coach Tanya Mahefu, according to NIU Media Services.

Saturday Morning — Southeast Missouri State

The Huskies did not start out the morning well as they were swept in doubles matches against the Redhawks.

Freshman Thisuri Molligoda and senior Evelyn Youel lost the first match 6-2 at No. 1 doubles.

At No. 2, senior Abigail Dekkinga and freshman Lara Slisko lost their match 6-2.

The Huskies lost the third and final match of doubles by default because they didn’t have enough players.

The singles matches were where the Huskies bounced back from getting swept in doubles by winning three matches in singles competition.

After dropping the first matches at No. 1 and 2, Dekkinga started the rally by defeating Anais Emelie of the Redhawks 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3.

Youel continued with the momentum by defeating Maja Lundell 6-4, 7-5 at No. 4. In the match following, sophomore Brodie Walker continued the streak by defeating A.M. Thompson 6-1, 6-2.

The Huskies were forced to concede the last match because they did not have enough players.

Saturday Afternoon — Bradley

The Huskies were again swept in the doubles matches, losing 6-4 in the first match and 8-6 in the second match.

At No. 2, Molligoda retaliated by defeating Natalia Barbery of the Redhawks 7-5, 6-4, evening the singles matches at 1-1.

After that was downhill for the Huskies as they lost the rest of their matches. Dekkinga dropped the third match 6-2, 6-1 against Malini Wijesinghe of the Braves.

At No. 4, Youel took the first set 6-2 but lost the next two sets 6-0 and 6-1. Walker also won one set but lost the match. The afternoon ended with a default loss for the Huskies.

“I know that there is a lot of room for improvement, and hopefully, we will get everyone healthy in the week to come,” Mahefu said, according to NIU Media Services.

The women’s tennis team will be back in action 1 p.m. Thursday when they head up to Madison, Wisconsin.