Losing is not the most popular thing in sports, but the NIU women’s tennis team is using it as a way to learn more about itself as a team.

Over Spring Break, the Huskies (4-7) played four matches with a 1-3 record in preparation for the beginning of the Mid-American Conference season. The lone win came on March 6 with a 5-2 home victory over Bradley, and since then, NIU has lost three in a row to Seton Hall, Stetson and Embry-Riddle.

“It would be nice if we get a few more victories here and there, but with the rebuilding process I have with this team, we need to lose,” said NIU head coach Ryun Ferrell. “We need to have those losses so that way, we can learn a lot more quickly, because if you win all of the time, it’s really tough to learn. If we were to beat Seton Hall and Embry-Riddle, squeaking out 4-3 both times, I really doubt we would have learned as much as we would if we did lose those matches.”

The win came against the one-loss Braves and was the last indoor match of the season for NIU.

The Huskies fell down early, losing the doubles point, but got singles victories from freshman Emily Rogers, sophomores Kathryn Friedlund and Martina Schnaap, junior Brooke Forsberg and senior Nao Umemura.

“We lost the doubles point, and then I encouraged them to get it done, and we kind of blew them off the court,” Ferrell said. “It was really kind of exciting to see.”

NIU’s first three outdoor matches would come as a tough test in Daytona, Fla.

On March 11, the Huskies fought to the end with Seton Hall in a close 4-3 loss. NIU took the doubles point but could not manage a win in any of the top three singles matches in the four-hour contest. Umemura, No. 4 singles, and Rogers, No. 5 singles, were victorious in their matches.

“Since it was our first match outside, we kind of made a few more errors than we should’ve,” said Ferrell. “I think if we would’ve played them toward the end of the week, we probably would have done a lot better.”

The next day, NIU battled in another four-hour match and finished on the wrong end again, losing 7-0 to Stetson.

“We weren’t able to come away with the match­­, but to keep a team that good out there for that long, I was really impressed,” he said.

The finale against the No. 8 team in the NAIA, Embry-Riddle, impressed the coaching staff as the Huskies lost 4-3. Again, Umemura and Rogers were able to gain victories in No. 4 and No. 5 singles respectively.

“That’s probably the best we’ve looked,” said Ferrell. “In 14 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen a team improve outside this much this fast.”

To many, losing three in a row and four out of five may seem bad, but coach Ferrell knows that they are in the rebuilding stage and showing signs of a revival.

“I’m not too upset that we haven’t won, but yet, I’m really excited as to what tomorrow’s going to bring because this team is soaking it up so fast,” Ferrell said. “I’m excited as to where we’re going and hopefully we can get there sooner than later.”

NIU opens up MAC play this Friday at Ball State at noon.