Senior Fredric Cadieux’s career with men’s tennis will come to an end once this season is over, but his accomplishments are going down in NIU’s record books.

Cadieux ranks sixth all-time in program history with 94 singles victories. He could move to No. 3, which is a three-way tie with 95 wins.

Cadieux went 25-4 as a freshman, 26-6 as a sophomore and 27-9 as a junior. This year he has struggled while playing at No. 1 singles the majority of the time, but he’s still 16-11. He is a two-time All-MAC Second Team selection and has been part of a team that won two MAC regular season championships.

“Fred is a winner,” said head coach Patrick Fisher. “He just wins. … He has been dominant, extremely dominant. … He has played top three in the line for three years, so you know he has been beating tough opponents.

“Imagine if he played for a full four years instead of three and a half years, he would have 10 or 11 more wins.”

Cadieux, of Verdun, Quebec, in Canada, came to NIU in spring 2012, missing the fall 2011 portion of the season. He was a nationally ranked player in Canada and reached the top 10 nationally in his age group in high school.

To Cadieux’s teammates and coaches, he is a hard worker, and that shows in his consistent performances for the Huskies.

“Throughout my years here I felt my game improved a lot,” Cadieux said. “Every year I felt an improvement, and it’s good to have that feeling.”

Cadieux has had a new task this season: He’s the lone senior on a team composed mainly of freshmen and sophomores, and he was asked to be the leader of the young squad.

“It was really challenging at the start of the year with only underclassmen,” Cadieux said. “All my years here we had an older group, and it was easier to build a good chemistry, but this year with all freshmen I had to transfer the culture of the team to them.

“I had to make them understand what college tennis is about and help them to adapt to college. It took some time, but this semester the chemistry in the team is amazing, and we’re winning many tough matches.”

Freshman Kevin Daun said he appreciates Cadieux’s presence on the team as a teammate and as a friend.

“He’s a great player,” Daun said. “He’s always pushing us on the court, and he’s a great person. Coming here as a freshman I was kind of weak mentally, but he made me become stronger mentally, and I really appreciate that.”

Although Cadieux’s tenure as a Huskie is coming to an end, he said he’ll continue to play for fun.

“I know I’m going to keep playing tennis back home, playing in tournaments and maybe train with the team sometime next year,” Cadieux said. “Professional tennis is too hard. I’ll just keep playing on my own for fun, but I’ll retire from competitive tennis.”