The men’s tennis team (14-8, 2-2 MAC) comes out of the weekend 1-1, with a win coming off conference rival Toledo (18-9, 03 MAC), 6-1, and a loss from the Detroit Titans (8-12), 4-2.

The first matchup was against the Titans from the Horizon League. The Titans pulled an upset by defeating the Huskies by a score of 4-2 in a match that shouldn’t have happened, said head coach Patrick Fisher.

“We lost to a bad team in Southern Illinois-Carbondale but then turn[ed] around and beat IPFW,” Fisher said. “This has been an awkward year. We [have] been consistently inconsistent. Detroit, we should have never lost to them.”

The only wins against the Titans came from the Huskies’ No. 1 and No. 2 players in singles, Dor Amir, 6-2, 6-3, and Frederic Cadieux, 6-4, 6-3.

After the surprising defeat, the Huskies took on the Toledo Rockets looking for a win and hoping to move an inch closer to make it to the MAC Championships. NIU won by a score of 6-1 to grab its second win in conference play.

NIU started out slow, losing two of the three doubles matches, giving the Rockets the first point in the match. From there, the Huskies won all the singles matches for the first time this season.

“This is the first time our bottom half [stepped] up in a very crucial matchup,” Fisher said. “We got killed in doubles, but won all single matches with four of them being in three sets.”

With that victory, the Huskies still hope to make it to the MAC Championships after being against the wall after losing two straight conference matches. The Huskies (2-2) are now tied for third place out of sixth with Western Michigan in the MAC standings. Ball State is leading with a 4-0 MAC record while Buffalo is in second with a 3-0 record. Fisher said NIU still has things to work on but the team has plenty of confidence heading into Buffalo.

“We still haven’t met our stride, but against Toledo I hope we finally found it,” Fisher said. “We have to be more aggressive in doubles so we aren’t in the same situation we were against Toledo.”

The Huskies have only one more match on the season coming against Buffalo University (9-7, 3-0 MAC) this weekend. A win can change the entire layout for the MAC Championships.

“If we beat Buffalo we are guaranteed a spot,” Fisher said.