Women’s tennis players opened their spring season with a sluggish start Saturday against the University of Illinois-Chicago.

UIC capitalized by taking the team doubles point and four singles victories to defeat the Huskies 5-2.

Despite the results, the future looks bright for the Huskies. Four players made their dual-meet debuts Saturday, including one senior, one junior, one sophomore and three freshmen.

Freshman Branka Savic dominated in her NIU debut, defeating Ayca Gumuscu 6-2, 6-1 to take the first point for the Huskies. Sophomore Tanja Sukovic also earned a point with a victory over UIC’s Jacki Farr.

High moments aside, NIU failed to capitalize on any other matches, dropping four of the six singles flights and the vital doubles point.

Coach Laura Scott remained optimistic.

“This is as good as a match as we’ve played this early in the season since I’ve been here,” she said. “I’m pleased with the way we played considering four of our players were competing in their first collegiate dual matches of their careers.”

The rest of the Huskie squad put out valiant efforts but weren’t able to capitalize and close out their matches. Karrie Tyloran, Kristi McIntyre, Kris Tiedt and Ashley Brunk all fell in singles action.

“The one place as a team we need to work on is that we really need to mature and close out matches,” Scott said.

The women will try to turn things around Saturday when they take on the University of Northern Iowa in Rockford.