Women’s tennis junior Cristina Alvarez didn’t hesitate when asked which match has stood out the most this season: “DePaul.”

Senior Nelle Youel, who makes up the other half of the Huskies’ No. 1 doubles team with Alvarez, nearly simultaneously responded with the same sentiment: “I think the best we probably played was against DePaul.”

Such is the relationship Youel and Alvarez have developed in their time playing together as a doubles team. The players can anticipate what each other is going to do on the court, and rooming together over the last year has brought them closer.

“It’s been real nice just to have a new friendship to go along with the partnership we have on the court,” Youel said.

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Youel and Alvarez had never played together before this season.

It would take first year head coach Tanya Gombera’s decision to shake up the doubles teams to bring Youel and Alvarez together. Gombera said she paired them because of their chemistry in early practices.

“The doubles point for us is very crucial,” Gombera said. “I thought strengthening all our doubles teams would be important.”

The doubles point has been do-or-die for NIU this season. The Huskies are 10-0 when they win the doubles point. When they don’t win the doubles point they’re 1-4.

As for Gombera’s strengthening of the doubles teams, moving senior Arantza De La Torre from the No. 1 duo to a lower squad to balance out the three teams meant elevating a slightly weaker player in Alvarez. But, Youel looks at Alvarez’s play more from the positive end.

“By far over the last three years Cristina’s the most improved player on the team in singles and doubles and just overall,” Youel said. “And that’s attributed to the hard work she’s put in. She’s a really hard worker, and I’ve noticed that since day one.”

When Alvarez came to the United States from Spain in fall 2012 she said she had hardly played doubles tennis.

Adding to the troubles of picking up doubles play at the Division I level was the lack of consistency Alvarez experienced. She played with five partners in her first two seasons.

“I would play with different players, changing all the time,” Alvarez said.

This season, Alvarez has played all her doubles matches with Youel, and the duo is 10-0 in the spring portion of the season.

Youel credits her and Alvarez’s success to their complementary style of play.

“Cristina’s very solid from the baseline, so I think that helps set me up at the net, which is nice because I’m more of a singles player naturally — just growing up playing singles,” Youel said. “It’s nice when she can set me up from the baseline, and I can set her up from the baseline, as well.”

Alvarez echoed Youel on the chemistry, adding that the communication between them has been so good things just become second nature.

“They’ve definitely proved to be one of the best teams in the conference,” Gombera said. “They seem like a natural fit together. And their results prove that theory.”

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The thing about the March 7 match against then-No. 23 DePaul which jumped off the page at Youel and Alvarez was they didn’t even win.

The three doubles matches all start at the same time, and the first team to two wins is awarded the doubles point, which breaks a tie if the teams split the six singles matches. The Huskies’ No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams had dropped their matches with Youel and Alvarez still in action, forcing the duo to end its match with a no-decision.

“We just had a lot of energy, and obviously they’re a good team, so it was easy to get that energy up and get excited to play them,” Youel said. “And I think it just showed us our potential. And we have to bring that — regardless of if we’re playing the best team or the worst team — that same energy so we can play at that level every week.”

For Youel and Alvarez, having their doubles matches go unfinished from time to time could be seen as lucky in helping them avoid losses when they’re trailing. But, Alvarez said it’s also cost them an extra win here or there. Youel added that it’s disappointing when their doubles matches are called off.

“I’d rather have a few losses and would have had the chance to have won the match instead of just having it stopped because of the other matches,” Youel said. “I think a couple of them we actually had the momentum in our favor even if we were down a game or down two games or whatever. It would have been interesting to see how those would have turned out.”

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The team’s pre-season goal of making the MAC Tournament remains the same. The Huskies are 2-1 in conference play with five matches to play.

For Youel, her decorated college career is nearing its end. She broke the program record for career combined wins (157) and career singles victories (84) earlier this season. Youel is one win shy of taking over sole possession of first place for most career doubles victories; she’s tied atop the list with 73. She said she’s taking things one match at a time but knows not donning the cardinal and black after this season “is going to be sad.”

“I’m sort of not trying to think about it because I still feel like there’s so much more work to do left in the season,” Youel said. “It’s sort of like just trying to play with a sense of peace because I’ve put everything into it [tennis] in my four years here. Nothing to lose. No regrets.”

For Alvarez, she’ll have one more season of college eligibility to play the game she loves. But, that will likely mean a seventh doubles partner, at least, in four seasons.

“I really like playing with Nelle,” Alvarez said. “I wish we had one more year to play together.”