When the NIU tennis team traveled to Iowa this past weekend, they knew the competition would be stiff and wins wouldn’t come easily.

When the dust finally settled, Drake University (7-2), Iowa State University (8-1), and the University of Iowa (9-0), all defeated NIU in convincing fashion and sent the Huskies back home wondering what had hit them.

The nightmare started when NIU dropped all six singles matches to Drake. At that point in the meet, the team didn’t have a lot left to play for, but did manage to salvage two doubles victories.

Marty Engel and Matt Green won an extremely close match 7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) against Atle Willems and Ross Nwatchukwut. Dustin Dobrin and Corey Westphal defeated John Judisch and J.D. Nieman 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-0.

“It says something very positive when you can keep battling for points when the overall outcome is decided,” NIU coach Chuck Merzbacher said.

The only other Huskie to pull out a win over the weekend was Matt Green who put away Micky Ramsey of Iowa State 7-5, 0-6, 6-4.