Huskie football fans will have a final chance to say “thank you” and “goodbye” to former NIU head coach Joe Novak.

On April 25, NIU will host an open house at the Yordon Center for Novak and his wife, Carole. The open house will be from 4 to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

For a final goodbye, NIU will bring in former Huskie football and NFL players as a part of “A Night with Champions” in the Holmes Student Center’s Duke Ellington Ballroom.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. April 26. Individual tickets cost $60 and can be purchased by contacting Karrie Kirk at 815-753-9198. All proceeds from the event go to the NIU football program.

Making it into the postseason

The NIU gymnastics team will cap off a successful season by sending two Huskies to participate in the 2008 NCAA Regionals.

Freshman Holly Reichard and junior Leah Johnson were selected to participate in the all-around event. This marks the first time since 1995 that NIU will have more than one competitor in the all-around event.

The regional will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday in Norman, Okla.

Huskies not loving end results

Sunday afternoon proved to be more bittersweet than the NIU men’s tennis team would have liked.

NIU junior Brian Livingston extended his win streak at No. 1 singles to 11 straight matches. And Huskies Alex Friesen and Jimmy Chu pushed their string of victories to 13 straight at the No. 2 doubles slot.

However, as a team, NIU fell short in a 4-3 decision against Ball State.

“The doubles point made all the difference,” NIU head coach Pontus Hiort said. “We have played well in doubles all year long. We just had one day where it didn’t go our way.”

Livingston was victorious 6-4, 6-2 over Ball State’s Jose Perdomo while Friesen and Chu won their match 9-8, topping Eduardo Pavia and Joe Vallee.

“[Livingston, Friesen and Chu] keep continuing to perform well,” Hiort said. “I have high expectations for them.”

Unfortunately for NIU, the other two doubles matches proved to be the turning point for Ball State. The Cardinals won 9-8 at No. 1 doubles and 8-2 at No. 3 doubles to clinch the decisive match point.

On the wrong end of par

For the second week, inclement weather shortened an invitational for the NIU men’s golf team.

The Huskies were participating in the Marshall Invitational over the weekend, but heavy rains shortened the tournament to only 36 holes.

NIU’s Greg Bauman paced the Huskies, tieing for 38th with a final score of 147, five shots over par. Alex Wagner finished the two rounds with a 148, one shot behind Bauman.

The Huskies as a team finished tied for 15th out of 16 teams with a score of 596 — 28 strokes above par.

Overall, University of Illinois won the tournament with a team score of 554 while Robert Rohanna of Penn State led all individual scorers with a six-under par.

NIU split its squad, with half of the team competing over the weekend. The other half headed to California to play Monday and Tuesday in the Stevinson Ranch Invitational. The Huskies will be led by Zach Jecklin and Andrew Frame in California.

Bringing up the pace

Rebounding from a fifth place finish in Ohio, the NIU women’s track and field team placed second at the Chicagoland Championships over the weekend.

The Huskies finished with a team score of 139.5, 1.5 points behind DePaul.

Sophomore Cora Caulfield paced NIU with first-place finishes in the shot put and the discus.

Overall, the Huskies won five events, including senior Coretta Evans winning in the 400-meter dash. Sophomores Jessica Statler and Brittany Houghton also notched victories for NIU, in the high jump and long jump, respectively.