The second-seeded Northern Illinois University men’s tennis team seeks a Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship as the team heads to Toledo this weekend.
NIU will open the tournament against the No. 3 seed and tournament host, Toledo. NIU will face off against the Rockets at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 20 at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts.
The Huskies (18-5) and Rockets (12-3) posted identical 7-3 records in league play with NIU earning the No. 2 seed based on its ITA Ranking after finishing in a tie with Toledo at 7-3 in MAC play. NIU narrowly missed out on the regular season championship after a 4-3 loss to top-seeded Western Michigan in the regular season finale.
“I think it’s all about ongoing player development,” head coach René Vidal said. “Each player has to try and get better this week and put the last match behind us. It’s been a great season so far and we have a lot of tennis ahead of us.”
Senior Cheng En Tsai (Taipei, Taiwan/Abraham Baldwin CC) is the Huskies No. 1 singles player this year and has a 15-5 record in singles competition this season while fellow senior Mikael Vollbach (Rothis, Austria) has posted a 14-9 record in 2024, competing mainly at No. 2 singles.
Freshman Saul Berdullas (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) has earned a 17-5 record while competing mainly at No. 3 singles.
Armin Koschtojan (Halle (Saale), Germany) has earned a 13-7 singles record while primarily being the Huskies No. 5 singles.
In doubles play the Huskies hold a record this season of 16-7. Tsai and Vollbach have competed at No. 1 doubles 22 times this season and hold a record of 15-7. Iker Gaztambide Arrastia (Pamplona, Spain) and Christopher Norlin (Stockholm, Sweden) have a record of 13-2, competing mostly at No. 3 doubles.
The Huskies and Rockets split their dual matches this season. NIU took the first dual 6-1 on March 24 in DeKalb with Toledo winning 6-1 on April 7 in Toledo.
Western Michigan takes on No. 4 seed Ball State in the other semifinal match. The championship match will be held Sunday at 12 p.m. (CT).