Women's Tennis

NIU Downs Northern Iowa, Eastern Illinois in Saturday Doubleheader

Saturday Women’s Tennis results
Northern Illinois 7, Northern Iowa 0
Youngstown State 6, Miami 1
Notre Dame 7, Western Michigan 0
Cincinnati 4, Eastern Michigan 1
Northern Illinois 7, Eastern Illinois 0
 
Recap courtesy of Northern Illinois’ Athletic Communications Department
 
DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's tennis team opened its home dual match schedule with a pair of 7-0 wins at the Nelson Tennis Center Saturday as the Huskies dispatched Northern Iowa in its first match of the day before blanking Eastern Illinois.
 
NIU (4-1) dominated the UNI Panthers in the morning match beginning with 6-0 and 6-1 wins, respectively, by NIU's No. 2 and 3 doubles teams of Isabella Righi/Lucia Yecora and Reagan Welch/Jenna Horne.
 
In singles, no Huskie lost more than three games with straight set wins at the 1-5 spots to go with a forfeit victory at No. 6 singles. Nataly Ninova, Yecora and Horne all recorded 6-0 second-set scores.
 
A new line-up for the afternoon match produced the same end result.  Welch and Horne paired up with new partners to earn wins at No. 2 and 3 doubles with Welch playing with Lucia Yecora and Horne with Theodora Kousiou. Their victories gave the Huskies the doubles point.
 
Eastern Illinois was able to force the singles matches at No. 1 and No. 4 to go to the 10-point super tiebreaker with Huskies Maria Dzemeshkevich and Welch both earning 10-4 wins to take those matches. Ninova continued her hot start to the 2025 dual season with a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 3 while freshman Irmak Budak, who won at No. 1 singles earlier in the day, scored a 6-2, 6-4 victory at No. 2 singles over Eastern Illinois.
 
All four of NIU's victories on the season have been sweeps. NIU next travels to Madison, Wisconsin on Friday, January 31 for matches against Milwaukee (1 pm) and Wisconsin (5:30 pm)