Oct. 2, 2011

MUNCIE, Ind. - The Northern Illinois men's tennis team closed the 33rd Ball State Invitational finishing the tournament with a singles record of 3-5 and a doubles record of 3-2. The Huskies only blemishes in doubles were caused by walkover victories due to injury.

Huskies Axel Lagerlof, Max Phillips and Roman Turtygin finished 1-1 in singles play over the weekend. Turtygin made his fall in Muncie, defeating Butler's Stephen McLoughlin 6-7 (6), 7-6 (3), 1-0(7) and falling to Ball State's Patrick Elliot 7-5, 6-1 in the quarterfinal.

In doubles, Turtygin also found success, teaming with Bryant Wei and and advancing to the championship round going 2-1. The NIU duo defeated Pulok Bhattacharya and Sam O'Neill of Butler, 8-4, and followed with another triumph over IUPUI's Jacob Bradley and Louis Sacks, 8-3. The pair's only lost occurred in a walkover.

"We played well this weekend," said Head Coach Patrick Fisher, "There was good competition here at the tournament. We had some chances to make some breaks in our matches to get a couple more wins but they didn't fall."

Northern Illinois will return to action Oct. 14-18 for ITA Midwest Regional, hosted by Ohio State.  Qualifiers will be announced on NIUHuskies.com soon.

SINGLES
Gary Notkin (UWGB) def, Bryant Wei (NIU) 6-2, 6-2
Ruben Geeraert (BU) def. Bryant Wei (NIU) 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (6)
Roman Turtygin (NIU) def. Stephen McLoughlin (BU) 6-7 (6), 7-6 (3), 1-0(7)
Patrick Elliot (BSU) def. Roman Turtygin (NIU) 7-5, 6-1
Max Phillips (NIU) def. Cam Tehrani (MU) 2-6, 7-6(7), 1-0(8)
Austin Smith (BSU) def. Max Phillips (NIU) 6-3, 6-0
Axel Lagerlof (NIU) def. Tommy Marx (BU) 6-2, 6-3
Pete Carpenter (DU) def. Axel Lagerlof (NIU) 1-6, 6-4, 1-0(4)

DOUBLES
Turtygin/Wei (NIU) def. Bhattacharya/O'Neill (BU) 8-4
Turtygin/Wei (NIU) def. Bradley/Sacks (IUPUI) 8-3
Elliot(BSU)/Tehrani(MU) def. Turtygin/Wei (NIU) w/o
Lagerlof/Phillips (NIU) def. Aleman/Carpenter (DU) 8-5
Albertin/Leonard (MU) def. Lagerlof/Phillips (NIU) w/o