Huskie baseball history was made March 22 in New York.

NIU head coach Ed Mathey became the winningest baseball coach in NIU history.

The historic win came in NIU’s first game against the Buffalo Bulls.

With the 10-3 victory, Mathey recorded his 144th win to make his way into the history books. The coach now has 146 wins after winning the remaining two games of the series against Buffalo.

Courting a win

NIU women’s tennis began MAC play Friday with a loss to Buffalo.

The Huskies dropped the match 7-0 to the Bulls, but NIU head coach Ryun Ferrell was pleased with the team’s play.

“We are incredibly tough,” Ferrell said. “Our ability isn’t quite matching up to our toughness, but that’s OK. If you are playing your best tennis now, by conference championship time, you’re not going to last that long.”

Despite the loss, the team returned to the court the next day and grabbed a win over Akron. The 4-3 victory over the Zips marked NIU’s first conference win.

“Akron gave us one of their better days,” Ferrell said. “But we looked really tough, and we out-willed them. We kept fighting, and refused to go away.”

Ferrell said his team’s fighting attitude is one of its best assets, but he hopes to see ability reach the same level as toughness.

“Once our ability matches up, we are going to be a nasty team,” he said. “Anyone can be good, but to be nasty, you’re going to draw a line in the sand and say ‘bring it on.'”

A bumpy road

Men’s tennis hit a bump Saturday, as its four-match winning streak came to a close. The Huskies fell 5-2 to DePaul University.

“We needed to play better to beat a pretty good team like DePaul,” said Pontus Hiort, NIU men’s tennis coach. “The momentum swung our way a few times in the match and we didn’t take advantage of it and it swung back DePaul’s way.”

NIU (6-4) will be working out its kinks before starting conference play April 5, when it hosts Buffalo.

Before conference play begins, the Huskies will compete in their last non-conference match Saturday. The match, which pits the Huskies against Southern Illinois, will be hosted by NIU and begins at 1 p.m.