Success breeds confidence, and the NIU women’s tennis team certainly is not lacking in the latter.

After winning all 27 matches in last weekend’s Huskie Fall Invitational, the Huskies are riding high. They travel to Macomb today to take on Western Illinois.

“We usually have a lot of success against them and I expect the same thing,” said coach Laura Scott about today’s dual meet.

After her team faced Bradley and Wisconsin-Milwaukee over the weekend, Scott is looking forward to playing another frequent opponent.

“It’s always nice to open the season playing our rivals,” Scott said. “We seem to step up our level of play against them.”

The outlook is no different from Scott’s players, including Molly Opel, one of two seniors on the roster along with Kris Tiedt.

“Going into this, we’re definitely confident we can do the same thing [today] as we did this weekend,” Opel said.

Opel is playing with mild tendinitis in her right shoulder but doesn’t intend on pulling any punches on the court.

“My shoulder’s always been a little iffy, but I’m feeling pretty good now,” Opel said. “I’m trying to get through the year as pain-free as possible.”

Being one of the team’s elder statesmen, Opel understands what that distinction entails.

“As seniors, we try to lead by example,” Opel said. “We know how to react to different situations. If the younger players have questions, we can help them.”

Despite proving over the weekend that they are a force to be reckoned with, the Huskies have put their practice time to maximum use this week.

Tiedt says the Huskies will be even better against the Leathernecks than they showed over the weekend.

“Everyone’s been working on the weaknesses we noticed over the weekend,” Tiedt said. “I think we’ve all seen an improvement in our games as a whole, and that should carry over to our matches.”