This Week in Huskie Athletics
This Week in Huskie Athletics
April 15-21
This week in Huskie Athletics NIU will have seven teams in action. Baseball hosts St. Thomas in mid-week action before a home series with MAC foe Kent State this weekend. Softball travels for a double header against WMU on Tuesday before returning home for a three-game series in DeKalb on Saturday and Sunday. Men’s tennis travels to Toledo for the MAC Tournament. The Huskies will face the hosts, Toledo on Saturday with the championship dual set for Sunday. Women’s golf competes at the MAC Championships starting on Sunday, April 21. Men’s golf travels to the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate hosted by Ohio State starting on Friday. Women’s tennis closes the 2024 regular season as the Huskies host Ball State on Friday before traveling to Buffalo on Sunday. Track and Field heads to Waco, Texas for the Michael Johnson invitational hosted by Baylor.
Baseball
Wednesday, April 17 vs St. Thomas, 1 p.m. – Live Stats
Friday, April 19 vs Kent State, 3 p.m. – Watch | Live Stats
Saturday, April 20, vs Kent State, 2 p.m. – Watch | Live Stats
Sunday, April 21, vs Kent State, 1 p.m. – Watch | Live Stats
NIU Baseball opens a five-game homestand this week, taking on St. Thomas on Wednesday at 1 p.m. before a weekend series against Kent State. The Huskies scored 21 runs in last weekend’s series at Big Ten leaders Illinois with Colin Summerhill driving in seven runs against the Fighting Illini. Summerhill hit six home runs in four games last week to tie the NIU single-season home run record of 15 set in 2003 by Mike Santoro. Summerhill slugged over 1.500 for the week and had 13 RBI against Eastern Illinois and Illinois. The senior catcher leads the MAC in home runs and is tied for the MAC lead in RBI with 41. He is tied for 11th in the country in home runs. Wednesday’s game against St. Thomas is the first meeting on the diamond between the Huskies and the Tommies. Kent State is 16-17 on the season and 8-7 in the MAC after taking one out of three games at Toledo last weekend.
Softball
Tuesday at WMU DH 1 pm/3pm – WMU All-Access Live Stats | WMU All-Access | Live Stats
Saturday, April 20 vs Buffalo DH 1/3 pm – Live Video Live Stats | Live Video Live Stats
Sunday, April 21 vs Buffalo, 12 pm – Live Video | Live Stats
The Huskie softball program will travel to Western Michigan on Tuesday, April 16 for a mid-week conference game against the Broncos. The Huskies are 5-10 in MAC play, after taking 2 of the 3 games against Toledo last weekend.
The Huskies went 3-2 in action last week, which included games against Bradley and Toledo. Danielle Stewart accounted for three home runs for the Huskies, including her first career grand-slam at Bradley. The Huskies set a season-high three home runs on April 12 against Toledo as the Huskies started the series off with a win.
Men’s Tennis
Mid-American Conference Championships
Semifinal: Saturday, April 20 vs Toledo, 1 p.m. – Live Stats
If NIU advances
Final: Sunday, April 21 vs Western Michigan/Ball State, 12 p.m.: – Live Stats
NIU men’s tennis enters the MAC Tournament on Saturday, April 20 at Toledo University. NIU will face off with Toledo in the semi finals in the 2/3 seed matchup. If the Huskies advance the Huskies will play in the MAC Championship again on Sunday against the winner of WMU and Ball State.
The Huskies narrowly missed out on the tournament’s one seed as the Huskies fell 4-3 in Sunday’s dual to determine the regular season champion and the tournament’s one seed. The Huskies took down Ball State 5-2 on Friday. NIU went 1-1 in 2024 against Toledo. The Huskies won 6-1 on March 24 and fell to Toledo by the same score on April 7.
Women’s Golf
MAC Championships at Pinnacle Golf Club (Grove City, Ohio)
The Huskie women’s golf team is set to compete at the 2024 Mid-American Conference championships at the Pinnacle Golf Club in Grove City, Ohio, April 21-23.
The Huskies have recorded five consecutive top-5 finishes and six overall this season. In the last outing for the Huskies, the team took third at the Oral Roberts Spring Invite. The Huskies carded an 891, just five strokes behind tournament winners’ Abilene Christian University. Emily Romancew, Jasmine Ly, and Sydney Naro all claimed top-10 finishes in the last tune-up before championships.
Men’s Golf
Friday April 19 – Sunday, April 21 at Men’s Golf at Robert Kepler Intercollegiate
(Columbus, Ohio)
The NIU men’s golf team plays its final tournament before the MAC Championship this weekend at Ohio State’s Robert Kepler Intercollegiate. The Huskies tied for eighth at last weekend’s Hawkeye Invitational, finishing at one-under par. It was the third time this season NIU finished a tournament under par as a team. Ben Sluzas led the Huskies with his second top-10 finish of the year. The junior tied for sixth with a 54-hole score of five-under par 208, his best finish of the season. Sluzas won the individual title at last year’s Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at two-under par as the Huskies finished third. Felix Krammer and Ian Bruchhauser finished in the top-25 as both golfers posted even par scores of 213.
Women’s Tennis
Friday, April 19: vs. Ball State (Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Fieldhouse OR Sycamore High School Courts), 1 p.m. | Watch* | Live Scores
Sunday, April 21: at Buffalo, 10 a.m. | Live Scores
NIU takes on Ball State at home and Buffalo on the road in the final week of the 2024 regular season. The Huskies have split each of the past three double match conference weekends. Last weekend, the Huskies dropped a 6-1 decision at undefeated league-leaders Toledo before defeating Bowling Green at home by the identical score.
The Huskies and Buffalo both enter the week with identical 3-5 records in the MAC while Ball State is 4-4. NIU is 14-10 on the season and will finish with a winning record for the third time in the last five seasons.
Huskie junior Erika Dimitriev led the way for NIU last week, winning all four of her singles and doubles matches. She accounted for NIU’s point at Toledo with a three-set win at No. 2 singles while she and partner Nataly Ninova also earned a doubles win versus the Rockets. The duo is undefeated (5-0) in MAC play in completed matches.
*Live stream only available if match is held in Nelson Tennis Center.
Track and Field
Friday-Saturday, April 19-20: at Michael Johnson Invitational (Waco, Texas)
After competing in-state last week at the SIUE Cougar Classic, the NIU women’s track and field team will return to Texas for this weekend’s Michael Johnson Invitational. Approximately 15 Huskies will travel and compete this weekend with field events beginning at 2 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday. Friday’s running events start at 5:30 p.m. while Saturday events on the track start at 1:30 p.m.
Sprinters Talayssia Sanders, Skylynn Blue and Christine Irving, along with the Huskie relay teams, posted some of the best marks of the weekend in Edwardsville.