NIU men’s tennis won a pair of double-headers during spring break in Orlando, Fla.

The Huskies (8-8) won on Monday against Siena (4-9) 6-1, before beating Webber International (12-3 overall, 3-1 FSC) 5-2.

NIU continued its success on Tuesday with a 7-0 win over Oklahoma Baptist (3-3, 1-1 SAC). NIU finished the two-day event with a 6-1 victory over Youngstown State (3-8, 0-1 Horizon).

NIU once again showed dominance at the one through three singles positions, going 12-0 during the span, while the three doubles teams combined to go 11-1.

NIU sophomore Maksym Bartiuk outscored his opponents at first singles 48-15 overall and only dropped three games in second sets throughout the double-headers.

Freshman Axel Lagerlof went undefeated in both singles and doubles for NIU. He won three matches at second singles and one match at third singles.

Lagerlof combined with junior Roman Turtygin to sweep the competition at second doubles.

Monday marked the first outdoor matches for the Huskies this season. In fact, NIU hadn’t even practiced outdoors prior to its first match on Monday.

“We didn’t play very well on Monday but we found a way to pull through,” said head coach Pat Fisher. “Then we turned around on Tuesday and played in the morning and the afternoon and played great. I couldn’t be happier with the progress of our team.”

Fisher was pleased with his team’s ability to handle two matches in one day, something it was unable to do in its previous double-header.

One of the keys to NIU’s success over break was the production from the lower half of the singles lineup.

NIU’s fourth through sixth singles positions have struggled at times this season, but the spots combined to go 8-4 over break as the team continued to build its momentum.

“The top part of our lineup continues to be the strength of our team,” Fisher said. “But we’re starting to play much better at the bottom and that’s encouraging going into conference play.”