This Week in Huskie Athletics
This Week in Huskie Athletics: Feb. 26 – March 3
This week in Huskie athletics NIU has eight teams in action. Men’s basketball will start the week on Tuesday at Toledo. Women’s basketball hosts their home finale against Toledo on Wednesday. Men’s and women’s basketball will both close the week on Saturday at Akron. Gymnastics heads on the road to NC State on Saturday after a record setting quad-meet victory. Baseball heads back on the road to Iowa on Tuesday and then to Cincinnati for a four game weekend series. Softball travels to Western Kentucky for five games against WKU, SIU and Dayton. Men’s gold opens up their spring play at the Lake Las Vegas Invitational starting on Monday. Men’s tennis hosts a pair of duals on Saturday while women’s tennis is home for a dual on Friday.
Men’s Basketball
Tuesday, Feb. 27: at Toledo, 6 p.m. – ESPN+ | Listen | Live Stats
Saturday, March 2: at Akron, 5 p.m. – ESPN+ | Live Stats
Road games against the top-two teams in the MAC standings await the NIU men’s basketball team this week as the Huskies have just four games remaining in the regular season. On Tuesday, NIU will travel to second-place Toledo for a date with the Rockets before heading back to the State of Ohio on Saturday for a matchup against first-place Akron. Full previews of both games will be available this week on NIUHuskies.com.
Women’s Basketball
Wednesday, Feb. 28: vs Toledo, 6 p.m. – ESPN+ | Listen | Live Stats
Saturday, March. 2: at Akron, 2 p.m. – ESPN+ | Listen | Live Stats
The Huskies host their final home game of the season on Wednesday night against Toledo. The Huskies have four games remaining, with the final three games on the road. After Wednesday’s home finale the Huskies will travel to take on Akron at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Last week the Huskies went 1-1. NIU took down Buffalo on the road on Wednesday but came up short against Bowling Green on Saturday. Brooke Stonebraker scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in the victory over Buffalo.
Gymnastics
Saturday, March 2: at NC State, 3 p.m. – ACC Network Extra $
The Huskies head to NC State for a quad-meet against NC State, Iowa State and Temple. NC State is the 20th highest scoring team in the country thus far in 2024.
Last weekend the Huskies hosted and won their quad-meet against Illinois State, Wisconsin-Eau Claire and Alaska Anchorage. The Huskies scored 49.475 on the floor which set an all-time record for the Huskies. Alyssa Al-Ashari took home first place on bars in the meet.
Baseball
Tuesday, Feb. 27: at Iowa, 4:05 p.m. – Live Stats
Friday, March 1- Sunday, March 3 at Cincinnati
Friday, 12 p.m. – ESPN+ Live Stats
Friday, 3 p.m. – ESPN+ Live Stats
Saturday, 1 p.m. – ESPN+ Live Stats
Sunday, 12 p.m. – ESPN+ Live Stats
The NIU baseball team continues it’s season-opening road swing Tuesday at Iowa before a four-game weekend series at Cincinnati. The Huskies went 1-3 last weekend against #2 LSU and Northwestern State. Senior catcher Colin Summerhill hit .400 for the weekend with two doubles, two home runs and four RBI. He had seven RBI in the two games against Northwestern State, driving in three runs in the Huskies’ 14-4 win last Friday night. Freshman pitcher Ty Brachbill earned his first career win in that game, striking out eight batters in 5.2 innings while allowing two runs on four hits and scattering five walks. He leads NIU early on this season with 13 strikeouts in 9.2 innings pitched. NIU last faced Iowa in 2019, an 8-6 win for the Hawkeyes. Iowa was picked to win the Big Ten in the preseason by the league’s head coaches. This weekend’s series at Cincinnati is the first between the Huskies and Bearcats since 2000. Cincinnati is 3-3 through its first two weekends this season.
Softball
Western Kentucky Hilltopper Spring Fling Tournament
Friday, March 1:. vs SIU – 12:30 p.m.
Friday, March 1: at WKU – 5:30 p.m. – Live Stats
Saturday, March 2: at WKU, 3 p.m. – Live Stats
Saturday, March 2: vs Dayton, 5:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 3: vs SIU, 10 a.m.
The Huskie Softball team returns to action on March 1 as they compete at the Western Kentucky Hilltopper Spring Fling Tournament. The Huskies will face off against in-state foe, Southern Illinois, as well as Western Kentucky and Dayton in the three-day tournament. The Huskies look to get back into the win column after dropping games against South Alabama and Central Michigan at the South Alabama tournament.
Men’s Golf
Monday, Feb. 26 – Wednesday, Feb. 28: at Lake Las Vegas Invitational – Live Scoring
The defending MAC champion NIU men’s golf team opens its spring season at the Lake Las Vegas Invitational. The Huskies had three golfers earn MAC Golfer of the Week honors in the fall and set a program record. In the first round of the Quail Valley Collegiate Invitational Oct. 9-10, NIU set a program record 18-hole score with a 14-under par 274. Josh Kirkham led the way with a 67, his lowest score of the fall. Felix Krammer posted a round of 68 with Zach Place adding a three-under 69. Freshman Craig Long rounded out the scoring on the record-breaking round with a 70. NIU finished in the top-10 in all five events during the fall. A full preview of the spring season is available on NIUHuskies.com.
Men’s Tennis
Saturday, March 2: vs Southern, 10 a.m. – Watch
Saturday, March 2: vs Omaha, 3 p .m. – Watch
NIU Men’s tennis returns to action after having a weekend off. The Huskies will host Southern at 10 a.m. and Omaha at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The Huskies have won their last six duals.
Head coach René Vidal picked up his first win at Youngstown State on February 16.
Cheng En Tsai is 7-2 in singles with a 6-1 record at No. 1 singles.
Women’s Tennis
Friday, March 1: vs University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 4 p.m. – Watch
For the second weekend in a row, the NIU women’s tennis team came up with a 4-3 road win as the Huskies defeated Valparaiso on Saturday, February 24 as Isabella Righi won a third set tiebreaker to give NIU its seventh win of the season.
After closing out an eight-match February Road swing with a 5-3 mark, the Huskies return home to the Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House Friday, March 1 to take on UW-Whitewater. The match gets underway at 4 p.m.
On the season, Righi’s 6-3 singles record leads NIU while Diana Lukyanova is 6-4 on the year. All four of the doubles teams head coach Eric Burns has put on the court this season have winning records as the Huskies have won the doubles point in eight of 12 matches to date.