ORLANDO, Fla. – The Northern Illinois men's tennis team captured the doubles point for the second time this season, and picked up three individual wins in singles play, leading to a 4-3 dual match win over Connecticut on Wednesday.
"This was a great win for us," said NIU coach Patrick Fisher. "Victories against teams from BCS Conferences can be difficult to come by, and our guys just played tough today. UConn played great; they kept coming at us in singles, and really had momentum on their side. But our guys dug deep, and found a way to get a great win for our program.
"We made a switch in our doubles lineup, with our No. 2 and No. 3 teams. It definitely paid off for us today, because we won the doubles point, and that proved to be the winning point. Hopefully it will pay dividends for us down the road, as well."
The Huskies (5-7) captured the doubles point by recording regulation pro-set win at both the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. Mikhail Titov and Roman Turtygin teamed at the top doubles flight to post an 8-6 win over UConn's Andrew Marcus and Scott Warden, followed by an 8-4 victory by Maksym Bartiuk and Maximilan Phillips at the No. 2 slot. Javier Bernabe and Greg Czajkowski dropped an 8-5 decision at third doubles.
Bartiuk defeated Marcus in a 7-5, 6-0 decision at the top singles flight, and Titov, playing No. 2 singles, posted a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Jai Yoon. Turtygin accounted for the fourth team point by defeating Joe Goldstein, 6-4, 6-2. Phillips nearly came up with NIU's fourth singles win, falling short in a three-set (1-6, 6-4, 4-10) decision versus UConn's Dave Adams.
