DeKALB | Both NIU men’s and women’s tennis wrapped up regular season action over the weekend. The men had lost their lone match in Buffalo, 6-1, while the women dropped two home matches to Western Michigan and Bowling Green.

In men’s action, the Huskies (11-15 overall, 1-4 MAC) could not overcome Buffalo (11-7, 3-2) and lost at the two-through-six singles positions.

Sophomore Maksym Bartiuk played at first singles and was able to tame Buffalo’s Wojciech Starakiewicz for a hard-earned 6-2, 7-6 victory.

Bartiuk has won four of his last five matches, and head coach Patrick Fisher is pleased with the performance he has seen going into the MAC Championships, which start Wednesday.

“We always know what to expect from him,” Fisher said. “The amount of effort he gives is great. It’s not just him; it’s the entire team giving this effort, but Maksym’s been having a great year for us.”

At second singles, Axel Lagerlof jumped out to an early lead to win the first set 6-4. After dropping the second set 6-2, Lagerlof could not claim a ten-point tiebreak, and ultimately fell short.

Roman Turtygin suffered a similar loss at third singles, winning his first set 6-4 before being out-dueled through the rest of the match.

“Anything can happen in those kinds of matches. We’ve won our fair share and lost our fair share,” Fisher said. “It’s one of those things where you want to grab the win but you just can’t get it. Our guys played hard but sometimes it happens.”

The bottom of the lineup once again went winless for NIU. At the four-through-six positions, NIU was outscored 37-10. A combination of inexperience and lack of depth have plagued the Huskies for the entire season.

In women’s action, NIU (2-16, 0-8) could not garner a single point in its final two matches and closed out the regular season with a 10-match losing streak.

NIU hosted Western Michigan (13-11, 6-2) on Friday, but could not add a late-season victory, being defeated 7-0. The Huskies hosted Bowling Green (14-7, 5-3) on Saturday but were brought down in similar fashion, 7-0.

During its last four matches, NIU has been outscored 28-0. The Huskies have been outscored 65-5 during their 10-match losing streak.

The women have a couple days to regroup before entering the MAC Championships on Thursday.