NIU men’s tennis will travel to Toledo, Ohio for the MAC Championships.

Entering the tournament as the second seed, NIU will not play until the second day of action, Friday, in the semifinals.

After earning a share of the MAC regular season title after beating Chicago State last weekend, NIU (21-7, 4-1 MAC) is in position to win the MAC Championship.

“We feel really confident,” said NIU coach Patrick Fisher. “We feel like we have a good shot going forward.”

The Huskies enter the tournament with one of youngest teams in the conference. Redshirt freshman Dor Amir has surprised the MAC with his strong play at first and second singles. Amir is 20-6 this season with four wins at the top spot, but has gone an undefeated 11-0 at second singles. Amir has also gone 16-7 at first singles with Axel Lagerlof.

Near the bottom of the lineup, freshman Frederic Cadieux has made an immediate impact as well.

Cadieux finished the regular season with a team-best 24-4 record, including a perfect 5-0 mark in conference action. The Quebec native is 10-2 at fourth singles and 10-1 at the five-spot.

Cadieux currently boasts a 13-match winning streak and has won 20 of his last 22 matches.

With a mix of young talent and returning MAC studs in Lagerlof and Maksym Bartiuk, NIU is touting the best lineup it has had in Fisher’s brief tenure with the program. Fisher expects nothing short of his team winning the tournament, which would give the Huskies an automatic berth for the NCAA Regionals.

“We’re going to take the matches one at a time,” Fisher said. “In order to make it to the finals, we have to win our semifinals match so we can’t look past that.”