CHICAGO – Freshman Maksym Bartiuk posted his third-consecutive singles win, remaining unbeaten in his young college career, but the Northern Illinois men's tennis team dropped a 6-1 decision versus host DePaul on Friday.
"We got outplayed in doubles today, and that was certainly the difference in the match," said NIU coach Patrick Fisher. "We need to continue to improve in doubles, especially against teams that clearly have that advantage over us. DePaul is a solid, veteran-laden team that is going to have a lot of success this season."
"Maksym (Bartiuk) continues to be our catalyst. He's a warrior, and plays with a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm. He's had a great start to his career. Maksym's challenge going forward will be to continue to improve as a doubles player."
After Bartiuk recorded his win at No. 1 singles, DePaul recorded convincing straight-set victories in the second-thru-sixth singles flights. Fellow NIU freshman Roman Turtygin, playing the No. 5 singles slot, battled in a tough 6-4, 6-3 loss to the Blue Demons' Matija Palinic.
In doubles play, which was played first, the session finished in order, 1, 2 and 3. Mikhail Titov and Javier Bernabe. NIU's No. 3 doubles tandem, fell in a hard-fought 8-5 pro-set decision, but DePaul locked up the doubles point with respective 8-1 and 8-4 wins at the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles positions.
