When spring break came to a close, the NIU men’s tennis team came out with an 11-5 record, winning two out of its three matches.

The Huskies faced quality teams in Stetson University (10-0), the Appalachian State Mountaineers (3-8) and Army (8-4) during break.

The Huskies’ first matchup was against nationally rank Stetson, which hasn’t lost a match this season. The team came out on the wrong side of the scoreboard with NIU losing by a score of 5-2. At the beginning, the Huskies couldn’t get first points in doubles with the No. 1 and No. 2 pairing, losing 8-3 and 8-0. Heading into singles, No. 1 Axel Lagerlof and No. 2 Frederic Cadieux won their matches to give the team a 2-1 lead. The rest of the team wasn’t able to step up, but head coach Patrick Fisher thinks the result also had to do with bad officiating.

“[We’re] still not getting what we need from our four, five and six [positions],” Fisher said. “We were up 2-1 against Stetson [and it] came down to our No. 3 and No. 5 position. Officiating was the worst I [have] ever seen. [We] almost beat a nationally rank team; that game could be a huge learning experience for us.”

The second matchup of spring break was against the Mountaineers. The Huskies started out strong to win 4-3. At the beginning of the matchup in doubles, Dor Amir/Lagerlof and Max Phillips/Simon Formont won their doubles matches to give NIU the 1-0 lead into singles. No. 1 Lagerlof won his match in three sets, 6-2, 4-6 6-0, and No. 2 Cadieux won his in two, 6-2, 6-0, with No. 5 Phillips finishing with a win to give the Huskies a victory.

“Appalachian State was a tough team,” Fisher said. “After we got through doubles we had a great chance at one, two and three [to win].”

In the final match of spring break, NIU took on Army and defeated the Black Knights 4-2. Due to time constraints on the court, the teams only played singles matches for the day. No. 1 through No. 3 won their matches to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead. Two losses followed before the match ended with No. 6 Formont winning his match in the final matchup of singles play. “Army is a very good team,” Fisher said. “[It] was a great privilege to play against Army. They never give up, and it was good for us. We started the match 3-0 but [Army] kept fighting.”

The team’s two victories over the weekend increase the Huskies’ record to 11-5 on the season with one more match to play before heading into conference action.

“[We’re] heading into the right direction and proud of [players] for what they done so far,” Fisher said. “We beat some really good teams and [are] going into conference ready and with some confidence.”