It can take a while for a team to build itself into a contender, especially when youth and inexperience are an obstacle.

For the NIU women’s tennis squad, this process is all too real.

The Huskies dropped their second meet of the semester Saturday, losing to the University of Northern Iowa 5-2. The UNI lineup won all three doubles matches to take the doubles point and swept four of six singles flights.

NIU found a bright spot in freshman Karrie Tyloran, who earned her first collegiate victory with a three-set win over Northern Iowa’s Jessica Landes. Junior Kris Tiedt also earned a point for the Huskies with her three-set victory over Fleur Muysson.

Tyloran and Tiedt were the only Huskie victors, as Branka Savic, Tanja Sukovic, Molly Opel and Kristi McIntyre were defeated in straight sets.

NIU coach Laura Scott realizes the need for improvement within her squad.

“Our doubles play was poor today, but our top five singles matches were all good, close matches,” Scott said. “It’s still a matter of us finishing matches — a matter of maturity. We’re a young team, but we can’t play young on the court anymore. We play the non-conference schedule to get rid of the jitters.”

The Huskies will travel to Indiana this weekend to play the Sycamores of Indiana State University on Friday and Butler University of Indianapolis on Saturday.