The Northern Illinois University women’s tennis team opens its 2024 dual match schedule this weekend at the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House as the Huskies will play host to No. 25 Wisconsin Saturday at 3 p.m. and face James Madison Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. Admission to all matches is free and the public is welcome to attend.
NIU returns its entire starting line-up from the team that posted a 12-16 dual match record a year ago, including an 8-7 mark in the Nelson Tennis Center.
Fifth year NIU head coach Eric Burns said the Huskies are ready to begin playing matches, with the Badgers and Dukes offering tough tests to open the year.
“We are ready to get out there and compete against two quality opponents this weekend,” Burns said. “We played well in the match at Wisconsin a year ago and they come in ranked 25th in the country, and James Madison has a team that has been in the Top 75. We have an experienced team, a deep team and we have all of our starters back from a year ago. We played Wisconsin tough last year in Madison, so we’re hoping on our courts, where we are very comfortable, to play well and be right in it.”
The Huskies are led by senior Diana Lukyanova, who enters the 2024 season with 69 career singles and 49 doubles wins at NIU. Junior Erika Dimitriev posted a 10-5 dual match record last year while playing at the No. 1 and 2 singles positions. Sophomore Nataly Ninova led the Huskies in singles wins in 2023 with 15 in 17 matches.
During the fall tournament season, the doubles team of Dimitriev and Ninova posted an 8-1 record, while sophomore Isabella Righi and Lukyanova teamed up to go 7-1. Righi also posted a 7-1 mark in singles play during the fall while junior Reagan Welch won six of her eight singles matches.
“Fall was really good for us,” Burns said. “The six people we had out there competed really well and did a great job. We made a lot of improvements in the weight room with our strength and our fitness. We just have to build on that here in the spring.”
The weekend matches are the first of 27 duals for NIU in 2024 with the first four matches at home before traveling to Iowa for matches at Northern Iowa and Iowa, followed by a “tour of Illinois” from February 11-18 beginning at DePaul and finishing up at Northwestern. The Huskies return home March 1 with six of its next seven matches at the Nelson Tennis Center, with the lone exception the MAC opener at Ball State on Sunday, March 17. The final 10 duals of the year versus league opponents will determine which teams advance to the MAC Tournament April 26-27 in Toledo, Ohio.
“We have 27 dual matches this year. It may be a little bit more than most Division I teams,” Burns said. “I think if you’re going to develop players, you have to play matches, you have to get out there. Our philosophy is to go play, that’s why we’re here.”
This year, for the first time, fans can watch the Huskie tennis action in the Nelson Tennis Center as streaming cameras have been installed over each of the four courts. Click here to watch the action live and here to follow live scores versus Wisconsin.