The Huskies (12-5) return from their spring break trip to Florida with two wins and a loss.

NIU started its trip with a 4-2 win against Troy (3-11) March 10 in Boca Raton, Fla. The Huskies lost the doubles point. No. 1 doubles team Matt Lynch and Axel Lagerlof fell to Troy’s Pablo Moreno and Sami Ghorbel, 8-6. No. 2 doubles team Dor Amir and Simon Formont also lost, 8-3.

Singles started off with a win when freshman Carlos Manzanas defeated Mansingh Athare, 6-1, 6-1. In the No. 4, Formont continued the success over Karen Khachatryan, 6-0, 6-2. The Huskies won twice more in singles, giving them the 4-2 edge. Lagerlof said much of the team’s success has to do with the rotation.

“We have seen some rotation in the bottom lineup,” Lagerlof said. “I believe it has caused competition within the team, and we all perform better for our spot.”

The team continued its road trip against Southern Mississippi (8-8) Tuesday in Palm City, Fla. The Huskies lost, 4-3.

The day started off on the right foot in doubles when the No. 1 team of Amir and Lagerlof beat the Golden Eagles’ Juan Escobar and Paulo Alvarado, 8-2. NIU’s No. 2 team, Frederic Cadieux and Formont, got a win over Alex Doleac and Brad Marriott to give the Huskies the doubles point and the 1-0 lead going into singles.

Singles didn’t go as well. In the No. 5 match, Formont fell to Chao-Yu Huang 6-2, 6-3, giving him his first singles loss. The Huskies also lost in the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 6 matches. Cadieux and Lagerlof did get wins in the No. 2 and No. 3; however, it wasn’t enough for the team to get the win.

With a loss on their minds, the Huskies looked to end their spring break trip on a high note against Florida Atlantic (7-9), and did just that, bouncing back with a 4-1 win Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla.

The Huskies took the early 1-0 lead by winning the doubles points. In the No. 1, Amir and Lagerlof got the win against the Owls’ Sean Bacha and Gerald Nickerson in an 8-7 final. Cadieux and Formont won their doubles match in the No. 2 8-4.

NIU took every singles match that finished except one. In the No. 2, Cadieux defeated Bacha, 6-0, 7-6. Cadieux’s win gave him his 13th singles win, the second-most wins on the team. In the No. 5, Formont continued his excellent play with a win over Robert Dubuque, 7-6, 6-4. He is now 15-1 on the season.

The heat caused two matches to go unfinished, but the doubles point and four singles wins were enough to give NIU the victory.

The trip made Lagerlof feel good about the team and its direction.

“We have a fighting spirit and will,” Lagerlof said. “These two things have been keys in our success.”