DeKALB — The NIU men’s tennis team suffered their first losses of the season during an Ohio road trip against Youngstown State University and James Madison University over the weekend.

The Huskies fell to the Youngstown State Penguins 5-2 Friday before dropping their second straight match against the James Madison Dukes 4-3 Saturday.

Friday match: Penguins 5, Huskies 4

Sophomore Armin Koschtojan defeated YSU senior Erik Gran 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in singles, while junior Oliver Valentisson earned a win over YSU Javi Pla 6-3, 6-3 in straight sets.

The Penguins dominated the Huskies throughout the day as YSU junior Laurentiu Mandocescu defeated senior Kristopher Ortega 6-3, 6-2, YSU freshman Nathan Favier beat junior Mikko Malinen 6-1, 6-1 and freshman Harry Fouzas defeated sophomore Mikael Volbach 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

YSU also dominated in doubles as YSU’s Gran and Fouzas defeated Malinen and Volbach 7-5. Mainguy Favier defeated Koschtojan and sophomore Luke VanDonslear 6-2.

NIU got their only win in doubles as freshman Clement Mainguy and Favier beat Mandocescu and junior Will Everett 6-3.

Saturday match: Dukes 4, Huskies 3

The Huskies opened the match by earning the doubles point over the visiting Duke, winning two doubles matches before the third concluded. 

In singles play, NIU met its match as James Madison bested the Huskies in four of the six singles matchups. Sophomore Oliver Valentinsson and freshman Mikael Vollbach earned the only singles victories for NIU as they defeated JMU senior William Karpinski and sophomore Oscar Hernandez respectively.

Thoughts from coach Fisher

Fisher on the team’s performance over the weekend:

“This was a weekend of one missed opportunity after another, we did a poor job of capitalizing and it cost us,” head coach Patrick Fisher said. “We had some guys that play in some situations that never experienced this before and it really cost us this weekend.”

The end result

The losses sank the Huskies’ record to 6-2 overall. The overall records for Youngstown State and James Madison stands at 5-5 and 6-1 respectively at the conclusion of the weekend.

The Huskies will have the remainder of the month off as they prepare for their next opponent in the University of Toledo Rockets on Mar. 11 to open Mid-American Conference play. The match will begin at 2 p.m. at Chick Evans Field House in DeKalb.