The NIU women’s tennis team split its two road matches over the weekend, losing at Ball State 4-3 on Friday before sweeping Bowling Green State 7-0 on Saturday.

“I’m really happy for our team to come away with the split this weekend,” NIU coach Laura Scott said.

Ball State (10-5 overall, 4-1 MAC) avenged last season’s loss to NIU by winning the doubles point and splitting three of the six singles matches.

With both teams evenly matched in singles play, the deciding factor was the doubles point, which is awarded to the team that wins at least two of the three doubles matches. Ball State won the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles match by totals of 9-7 and 8-6, respectively, to take the team win.

But the Huskies (7-6, 3-2) bounced back the next day with a 7-0 sweep of Bowling Green on the road. The victory put NIU back over the .500 mark and pushed it past the Falcons (9-9, 3-3) in the MAC West standings.

“Playing outdoors with the fierce winds, it was a battle for every point, particularly in the last three matches,” Scott said.

The Huskies’ Branka Savic came back for a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Bowling Green’s Lisa Maloney. Savic lost 6-1, 6-3 to Ball State the previous day.

NIU’s Cassie Drake (No. 2) and Ivonne Andrade (No. 4) won both of their singles matches over the weekend to improve to 20-7 and 22-8, respectively, on the year.