The cold weather of the Midwest hasn’t allowed the NIU men’s tennis squad to compete in an outdoor home match all semester.

But the string of bad weather finally ended last Saturday, as the Huskies hosted the University of Buffalo at the outdoor Anderson Hall courts.

Despite gusts of infamous DeKalb wind, the Huskies managed to defeat the Bulls by a margin of 5-2.

“The conditions were tough,” NIU coach Steve Rodecap said. “For the most part, we did a good job of coming out and taking care of business.”

The victory was the 13th of the year for the Huskies, giving them a 13-10 record heading into next weekend’s Mid-American Conference tourney hosted by Western Michigan.

NIU got the early doubles point by sweeping all three matches. The combos of Raymond Van Wasbeek and Aaron Forsberg, Juan Pablo Barriga and Tim Freesen and Brent Sitarski and Ryan Schnack were all victorious.

In the singles matches, Van Wasbeek and Forsberg got the first wins for the Huskies, 7-5, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-4, respectively, increasing their lead to 3-0.

Brent Sitarski dropped his singles match to UB’s Justin Brtko 6-3, 3-6 and 6-3, but Barriga came back at the top of his match 6-4, 7-6, to give the Huskies the game winner.

Tim Freesen grabbed the fifth and final point for NIU, as he defeated UB’s Sean Kelley 6-3 and 6-3.

“Ray and Aaron were highlights for us today,” Rodecap said. “They did a nice job in their singles matches and played very well in doubles, too.”

The Huskies look to end their season on a high note at the MAC championships April 26-28 in Kalamazoo, Mich.