Three Huskies won three-set matches to give the Northern Illinois University women’s tennis team its 19th win of the season as the Huskies defeated Bowling Green, 6-1, Friday in Ohio.

“This was a really tough match today and I was really proud of our effort,” said NIU head coach Eric Burns. “The resilience was unbelievable. I haven’t seen momentum swing quite so dramatically and quickly in a match. Doubles got us off to a good start and then we were able to gut out some tough matches to get the win.”

The Huskies took the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and 3 doubles by the duos of Isabella Righi/Lucia Yecora and Jenna Horne/Erika Dimitriev but fell behind in singles as Bowling Green won first sets at No. 1, 2 and 3 singles, and led at 5 and 6.

“It was looking bleak for us,” Burns said. “I knew Bowling Green was better than their record indicated, and they played great, especially at 1 and 2 today. There was such a high level of tennis on those two courts. It was a slugfest, there were very few errors, and we had to play really well to win those two. [Righi’s] win at six was probably the biggest win of the day.”

Righi trailed Lucia Gaio of Bowling Green before coming back to take the first set by winning the tiebreaker, 7-5, then cruising to a 6-0 win in the second set. Nataly Ninova also trailed in the first set of her match at No. 5 singles. She came back to take a 7-5, 6-1 win.

Three-set matches at 1, 2 and 4 all went in favor of the Huskies. At No. 4 singles, Yecora claimed a 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 win for her 15th win in 16 matches this year, and a 6-0 mark versus MAC opponents. Freshman Irmak Budak came back after losing the first set tiebreaker, 8-6, to win the next two sets and the match at No. 2, while Maria Dzemeshkevich took down the Falcons’ Tia Clemens, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

NIU won its fifth straight match to improve to 19-4 on the season, 5-1 in the MAC. The Huskies’ 19 wins are one shy of the school record of 20, set in 1985. NIU will look to tie the record Sunday (April 6) when they play host to Western Michigan beginning at Noon at the Nelson Tennis Center.