The women’s tennis team can’t seem to find its way back into the winning column as it lost to Bowling Green, 5-2, and Western Michigan, 6-1 this weekend.

Those two losses gave the Huskies their longest losing streak of the season, as they have not won in four matches.

“We were doing basic things wrong, which is a tough hole to come out off,” said head coach Ryun Ferrell. “We made mistakes. We beat ourselves more than they beat us.”

Friday against Bowling Green, No. 1 doubles team Nelle Youel/Mary Malkin defeated Nikki Chiricosta/Emily Reuland to start strong in doubles play. That win wasn’t enough, though. The team needed one more win to claim first point but No. 2 and No. 3 both lost, giving Bowling Green the 1-0 lead going into singles.

In singles, Youel won in three sets, defeating Reuland, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, to tie the team score 1-1. Cristina Alvarez won her match giving NIU the lead. It didn’t last long as no other Huskies recorded a victory.

Saturday, when NIU faced off against the Western Michigan Broncos, things got worse. The Huskies lost 6-1 with the only victory coming from Youel. In doubles, the first two pairings lost their match 8-4, while the last lost 8-5. In singles play, Youel had another tough matchup for the weekend, playing Nina Sujashvili and winning in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, and 10-7.

“We played the best we played in conference so far,” Ferrell said. “Everyone looked great this weekend they played tough and hard. Nelle went undefeated for the weekend and she responded great for us. We’re starting to turn the corner.”

Ferrell knows his team is playing its best but wants more success in conference play. The Huskies made mid-week changes to their line up that didn’t play out in their favor.

“These were three new doubles teams,” Ferrell said. “They haven’t played that much together so it’s what it is.”

With those two losses over the weekend, the Huskies won’t be back on the courts for a while. The next time they will be on the courts will be against Toledo (7-9, 1-2 MAC) on April 12 and Eastern Michigan (6-11, 1-2 MAC) on April 13.

Representatives from Bowling Green and Western Michigan were unable to comment following the matches.