The women’s tennis team’s unbeaten streak of nine games came to a close over spring break by the hands of a 6-1 loss to University of Illinois-Chicago.

The Huskies bounced back with wins against Missouri-Kansas City, 6-1, and Emporia State, 7-0, to go 14-2 on the season heading into conference play.

Against UIC, the Huskies started off slow by not getting first point in doubles as UIC won every doubles match. No. 1 pairing in doubles Nelle Youel/Arantza De La Torre came close to winning but lost 8-7 to receive their first loss in doubles for the season.

Going into singles, the team didn’t get much luck with No. 1 Youel being the only one winning her match in three sets, 3-6, 6-2 and 6-1. Coach Ryun Ferrell said you have to expect results like that from a good UIC team.

“We competed well,” Ferrell said. “We started off very slow but almost won the match. If we started quicker our percent would of went up, but losing to UIC–it’s just how it goes. They haven’t lost a conference match in a long time. Everything happens for a reason, you can learn a lot from a loss.”

With the Huskies losing their first match since Feb. 3 to Southern Illinois University, Ferrell noticed something different about his team in practice before heading to Kansas.

“After that loss [to UIC] they had an attitude in practice I haven’t seen before,” Ferrell said. “When they lost they wanted to get back and play again as soon as possible.”

UM-KC was the Huskies’ first matchup in Kansas in which the team bounced back with a 6-1 victory. The Huskies received first point in doubles with No. 1 and No. 2 pairings, winning 8-2 and 8-6, and continued the success into singles, winning five out of the six matches.

The final opponent the Huskies faced during spring break was Emporia State. It was the team’s first outdoor match of the year and NIU won by a score of 7-0. Now they go into conference play with a 14-2 record and with the most wins of the team since 1997.

“We played all right; it was a quick turnaround,” Ferrell said. “Also, I didn’t even know that we even did something like we did, but this group deserves that. They deserve all the credit.”

With most of the season finished, the Huskies will play their first conference match against two-time defending MAC champions Akron University on March 22 and undefeated University of Buffalo on March 23.