March 22, 2009

Final Results in PDF Format

MILWAUKEE - The Northern Illinois men's tennis team fell in a 7-0 dual match decision versus host Marquette at the Helfaer Tennis Stadium in Milwaukee Sunday. For the second-consecutive day, NIU stretched three of its singles matches to a decisive third set.

"The difficulty we faced today was transitioning from playing outdoors yesterday, to going back to indoor tennis today," said NIU head coach Pawel Gajdzik. "Marquette is a very experienced team with mostly juniors and seniors, and they showed today how much that can be an advantage.

"The good thing for us was that today was our last indoor match of the season. We'll prepare now for strictly playing outside. We really fought hard in singles, stretching some of those matches into three sets. We need to get better at closing out individual matches, and that will be a focus this week in practice."

Matt Hansen and Jimmy Chu nearly pulled out a win at No. 3 doubles, falling in a 9-7, extra session pro-set match. The Huskies' No. 1 and No. 2 doubles duos dropped 8-4 and 8-3 decisions, respectively, securing the doubles point for Marquette.

In singles play, the Golden Eagles recorded straight-set wins at both the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. In the third-thru-fifth flights, NIU stretched the matches to three-sets, including Shaun Stewart's 6-3, first-set win over Marquette's Niko Boulieris at No. 3. But Marquette won the decisive third set in all three matches to prevent the Huskies from garnering a singles point.

NIU will continue non-conference play next Saturday, when the Huskies travel to Carbondale, Ill., to take on host Southern Illinois.