EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Wins at the top of the lineup were not enough for Northern Illinois to secure their seventh-consecutive victory at SIU-Edwardsville, as the Huskies fell to the Cougars, 4-3.
"This was an extremely disappointing loss for us, this whole weekend has been nothing but a bunch distractions and to put it simple we did not do a job of handling it," said a disappointed Head Coach Patrick Fisher after the match.
The doubles point proved to be crucial in the contest, as the Huskies were close to clinching the point with a win at No. 1 by Dor Amir and Frederic Cadieux, 8-4, but dropped the point with a loss at No. 2 with Axel Lagerlof and Simon Formont to drop the point, 8-6.
Lagerlof, Amir and Cadieux would win at Nos. 1-3 to keep the Huskies within winning's reach but were unable to get over the hump. Formont, playing at No. 4, had a three-set thriller as he wrestled back and forth with Jacob Tanulanond. The Orleans, France native dropped his first set, 6-2, and won the second set 6-3, and took the final set down to the wire, but fell 7-5.
Northern Illinois falls to 6-2 with the loss, while the Cougars advance to 3-1. NIU will take a weekend off from competition before returning to the court for a doubleheader with Green Bay and Western Illinois Feb. 23. The matches will start at 1 and 5 p.m., respectively.
