The Northern Illinois men's tennis team captured individual wins in each of the top four singles flights, recording a 4-3, non-conference win over defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Southern Illinois at the Forest City Tennis Center in Rockford on Sunday afternoon.
"I was proud of the guys, and how they stood up to the challenge of grinding out a win against a very good Southern Illinois team today," said NIU coach Patrick Fisher. "They are a team that beat us last season, and that also won the Missouri Valley."
"We had a chance to win the doubles point when our No. 3 team forced match point, but SIU stood tall in that match, and it certainly put the pressure on us in singles. Our top-four guys all found a way to win, and that was huge."
The Huskies nearly captured the doubles point, when the No. 3 tandem of Maximillian Phillips and Greg Czajkowski was in a match point position in the pro-set. But the Salukis' Jordan Snyder and Pavlo Buryi forced overtime, and sealed SIU's doubles point with a 9-8 (8-6) win.
The Huskies' duo of Romany Turtygin and Mikhail Titov recorded an 8-6 victory at No. 1 doubles, while Maksym Bartiuk and Javier Bernabe dropped a hard-fought, 8-5 decision at the second flight.
In singles play, Bartiuk made quick work of SIU's Brandon Florez, 6-4, 6-0, at the No. 1 position. At second singles, Titov defeated the Salukis' Mpilo Migogo in three sets (1-6, 6-3, 6-4), followed by a 6-4, 6-1 victory by Bernabe at No. 3. Turtygin sealed the decisive fourth team point with a three-set (7-5, 5-7, 6-3) win over Spahic at the No. 4 slot. SIU recorded wins at the No. 5 and sixth singles slots.
"We're starting to show how much we've improved since the beginning of the season," Fisher added. "Our guys are working extremely hard and finally getting adjusted to this level of tennis. I'm really excited about our Spring Break trip, because we'll be playing some great teams, and it will be a chance for us to get more prepared for MAC play."
