March 7, 2007

DeKalb, Ill. - The NIU women's tennis team will play matches two and three of their five-match home stand Thursday and Friday in their last tune-ups before Mid-American Conference play starts. On Thursday, the Huskies (4-1) will face the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames (1-5) at 4p.m. On Friday, NIU will go up against the University of Northern Iowa Panthers (6-0) at 3p.m.

The Huskies come into the matches after a solid performance against Western Illinois. NIU easily won 6-1 and they were able to sweep all three doubles matches. Since changing the doubles line-up for their match against UConn, the line-up of Megan Brooks/Brooke Forsberg at the one spot, Lilian Asuaje/Nao Umemura at the two, and Dora Delgadillo/Jenny Edner at the three has won all six matches. Huskies head coach Ryun Ferrell was pleased with the results of his doubles squad and hopes they can continue to play well with conference play just around the corner.

"It was a solid performance for the Huskies," said Ferrell. "Doubles looked very solid. We need to get back to the drawing board for singles. We need to brush up on a few things to get us ready for conference play."

The UIC Flames head into their match off a 6-1 win over UW-Green Bay. However, they lost their first five matches of the year before picking up their first win. The Flames will look to build momentum as they head into conference play.

The UNI Panthers are bringing a six-match winning streak into their match-up versus the Huskies. The Panthers' last win was a 4-3 decision over Eastern Illinois. The Huskies will have to work hard to end UNI's streak and if they do, they will have a three-match winning streak of their own.

-NIU-