This week in Huskie athletics, NIU will have nine teams in action. Men’s basketball will host Buffalo on Tuesday before heading to Kent State on Saturday. Women’s basketball will host Western Michigan on Wednesday in an Education Day game before taking on EMU away from home on Saturday. Baseball will open their season with a series at Abilene Christian. NIU softball will play five games in the South Alabama tournament, starting on Saturday. Gymnastics will compete on the road against EMU on Sunday. Both men’s tennis and women’s tennis will both be on the road over the weekend. Track and Field will head to Illinois State for the Redbird Tune Up on Friday.

Men’s Basketball

Tuesday, Feb. 13: vs Buffalo, 7 p.m. –   ESPN+ |  Listen | Live Stats

Saturday, Feb. 17: at Kent State, 1 p.m. –  ESPN+ |  Listen |  Live Stats

 

NIU begins a stretch with three of the next four games at home, starting with a Tuesday night contest against Buffalo. The Huskies will then close the week with a trip to Kent State on Saturday. NIU has won its last two conference games before falling at South Alabama in the MAC/Sun Belt Challenge.

 

Zarique Nutter recorded his second career double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds last time out against South Alabama while Zion Russell netted a new career-high 13 points along with a new career-best eight rebounds against the Jaguars. Full previews of both games this week will be available on NIUHuskies.com.

 

Women’s Basketball

Wednesday, Feb. 14: vs Western Michigan, 11 a.m. – Watch | Listen | Live Stats

Saturday, Feb. 17: at Eastern Michigan, 12 p.m. –   Listen | Live Stats

 

NIU hosts Western Michigan for an early, Education Day 11 a.m. tip off on Wednesday, Feb. 14. The Huskies will close this weekend at Eastern Michigan.

NIU has won its last two games. Last week the Huskies took down MAC leading Ball State 76-71 in overtime on Wednesday, Feb. 7, to end the Cardinals undefeated conference campaign. On Saturday, Feb. 10, the Huskies took down Georgia Southern in the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge. Jayden Marable scored a season-high 26 points in Saturday’s win.

 

Baseball

Friday, Feb. 16: at Abilene Christian, 3:05 p.m. – ESPN+

Saturday, Feb. 17: at Abilene Christian, 1 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 17: at Abilene Christian, 4 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 18: at Abilene Christian, 1:05 p.m.

NIU Baseball opens its 2024 season this weekend with a four-game series at Abilene Christian. The Huskies return 27 letterwinners from a season ago for head coach Ryan Copeland’s first season in the dugout. NIU returns four of its top five hitters from 2023, led by senior catcher Colin Summerhill who led the Huskies with a .308 batting average, 11 home runs and 54 RBI. Senior outfielder Eric Erato set an NIU single-season record with 51 walks last year and stole 25 bases. On the mound, the Huskies return 12 hurlers led by junior Mason Ruh who threw a team-high 54.1 innings pitched with 41 strikeouts. NIU faces Abilene Christian for the first time this weekend. A full season preview will be available on NIUHuskies.com later this week.

 

Softball

South Alabama Tournament | Mobile, Ala. | Feb. 16-18

Saturday, Feb. 16: vs. Eastern Kentucky, 10 a.m.

Saturday, Feb. 16: vs. UAB, 12:30 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 17: vs UAB, 9 a.m.

Sunday, Feb. 17: at South Alabama, 2 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 18: CMU, 9 a.m.

 

Taking their 2-3 early season record on the road, the NIU softball squad heads to Mobile, Alabama for the South Alabama Invitational. The Huskies will face Eastern Kentucky, UAB, South Alabama, and fellow MAC-school Central Michigan in the three-day tournament.

 

The Huskies opened the 2024 season at the Doc Halverson UNI-Dome Classic. The Huskies had a walk-off win against Butler on February 11 in eight innings. Freshman Katy Ramage had a strong debut for the Huskies, going 6-of-15 (.400 avg) over the weekend, 3 stolen bases, and 4 RBIs. The Huskies posted an 8-6 win over Western Illinois to start the 2024 season before dropping contests to Omaha, Drake, and Northern Iowa.

 

Gymnastics

Sunday, Feb. 18: at Eastern Michigan, 12 p.m.

The Huskies will take on Eastern Michigan away from home on Sunday. Last week the Huskies took part in the annual Beauty and the Beast meet and took home second place in the quad-meet.

On Sunday, Feb. 11 the Huskies came up just short against EMU while scoring 195.325. In the meet Alyssa Al-Ashari scored a 9.925 on bars which tied a career-high. Natalia Kraus and Emmalise Nock scored a 9.800 on bars as well.

Kiera O’Shea, Isabella Sissi and Dawsyn Sallee all scored over 9.800 on the vault as well.

Men’s tennis

Friday, Feb. 16: at Youngstown State, 10 a.m.

Saturday. Feb. 17: vs Xavier, 10 a.m.

The Huskies will compete in two duals this weekend in Youngstown, Ohio. The Huskies will compete on Friday against Youngstown State and then on Saturday against Xavier.

Last weekend the Huskies hosted a pair of duals on Saturday, Feb. 10 against Eastern Illinois and Lewis. The Huskies downed EIU first 6-1 before taking down Lewis 7-0. NIU has won their last four duals with three of them being 6-1 wins.

Saul Berdullas is 6-2 in singles matches this season overall. Cheng En Tsai is 5-2 and 4-2 in No. 1 singles.

Women’s tennis

Friday, February 16: at Western Illinois (Macomb, Ill.), 11 a.m.

Friday, February 16: at Bradley (Pekin, Ill.), 6 p.m.

Sunday, February 18: at Chicago State (Homewood, Ill.), 10 a.m.

Sunday, February 18: at Northwestern (Evanston, Ill.), 5:30 p.m. | Watch | Live Scores

 

NIU continues its February road swing with four matches in four different cities in Illinois this weekend as the Huskies will play a pair of day-night doubleheaders on Friday and Sunday.  On Friday, the Huskies (3-4) will take on Western Illinois (1-5) before traveling down the road to Pekin, Illinois for a 6 pm match-up versus Bradley (1-5). Sunday, NIU will play Chicago State (2-8) in Homewood, Illinois before wrapping up the weekend with a Sunday evening match at Northwestern (4-3 entering the weekend).

 

The Huskies enter the weekend 3-4 after picking up a 6-1 win at Northern Iowa last week and dropping decisions at Iowa (5-2) and at DePaul (4-0). NIU has been strong in doubles in the early part of the dual schedule, taking the doubles point in five of seven matches to date, including at Iowa last Friday. Junior Reagan Welch also earned a singles win at Iowa to account for the Huskies’ second point.

 

Women’s golf

Beginning the spring portion of their season, the Northern Illinois University women’s golf team is set to compete at the Bowling Green State University’s Women’s Collegiate Invitational, February 13-14. Action will take place at the Wigwam Golf Club-Blue Course, in Litchfield Park, Arizona.

The Huskies were last in action at the FIU Pat Bradley Invitational, October 14-16, 2023. Jasmine Ly (Windsor, Ontario, Can./Holy Names HS) took ninth at the event, scoring one under par.

 

Track and Field

Friday, February 16: at Redbird Tune Up (Normal, Ill.), 12 p.m.

 

The NIU women’s track and field team travels to Illinois State on Friday for the final meet before next week’s Mid-American Conference Indoor Championships. Friday’s Redbird Tune Up begins at 12 p.m. with the weight throw, track events are slated to start at 1 p.m. with the prelims in the 60-meter hurdles.

 

This past weekend, the Huskies recorded four top-10 finishes at the Wisconsin Windy City Invitational. Arianna Calloway was third and Kamiya Dendy was seventh in the high jump, Skylynn Blue took sixth in the 200 meters while the NIU quartet of Talayssia Sanders, Malia Watkins, Kennedy Crawford and Roshell Rowe were 10th in the 4×400-meter relay.