This Week in Huskie Athletics Northern Illinois University will have five teams in action. NIU baseball will head to EIU and UIC for midweek games before traveling to Indianapolis to take on Butler in a four game weekend series. NIU softball will travel to take on Northwestern before taking on Ohio at home in a series on Friday and Saturday. NIU women’s tennis will host Toledo and Chicago State and Friday before hosting Ball State on Sunday. NIU men’s tennis will travel for a dual with UIC on Saturday. NIU track and Field travels to the Redbird Challenge on Friday, March 28 hosted by Illinois State.

Baseball

Tuesday, March 25 at EIU, 3 p.m. –  Watch On ESPN+ | Live Stats

Wednesday, March 26 at UIC, 2 p.m. – Watch | Live Stats

Friday, March 28 at Butler, 2 p.m. – Live Stats

Saturday, March 29 at Butler, 11 a.m./3 p.m. (DH) – Live Stats

Sunday, March 30 at Butler, 12 p.m. – Live Stats

The NIU baseball team takes the field six times this week, starting Tuesday afternoon at Eastern Illinois. The Huskies won last season’s game in Charleston 14-12 behind two home runs and six RBI from Colin Summerhill. NIU has won four straight games against the Panthers. NIU hosts UIC on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Ralph McKinzie Field at Walt and Janice Owens Park. The Huskies dropped a close 5-4 game at UIC last year. NIU will take on those two teams again in two weeks. Over the weekend NIU will head to Indianapolis to face Butler for a four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday. It’ll be the first games between the Huskies and the Bulldogs on the baseball diamond. NIU’s last win against a Big East program came on Feb. 26, 2017 in a 6-4 win over Villanova.

 Softball

Wednesday, March 26 at Northwestern, 4 p.m. –   Watch | Live Stats

Friday, March 28 at Ohio, 3 p.m. – Watch | Live Stats

Saturday, March 29 at Ohio, 1 p.m./3 p.m. (DH)  – Watch | Live Stats

The Huskies softball team continues action this week as they take on Northwestern and Ohio. The Huskies head to Northwestern for a non-conference match on Wednesday to face the Wildcats at 4 p.m. before hosting Ohio for a three-game series in conference action.

Senior infielder Jenna Turner is a on a six-game multi-hit streak at the moment as she led the team at the plate in action last weekend against Miami. Turner is hitting at .390 on the year, second only to Madison Mathews on the team at .397. Danielle Stewart has a 4.81 ERA with 11 appearances while Maddy Carlson sits at 2.82 ERA and seven appearances.

Women’s Tennis

Friday, March 28 vs. Toledo (Sycamore High School Courts), DeKalb, Ill., Noon | Live Scores

Friday, March 28 vs. Chicago State (Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House), DeKalb, Ill., 6 p.m. | Live Scores

Sunday, March 30 vs. Ball State (Nelson Tennis Center at Chick Evans Field House), DeKalb, Ill., Noon or 1 p.m. | Live Scores

The 15-4 NIU Huskies play a trio of matches in DeKalb this weekend, including two versus Mid-American Conference opponents.  The Huskies will take on Toledo on Friday in the only regular season meeting between the teams as NIU looks to defeat the Rockets for the first time since 2017. The match is currently scheduled for the Sycamore High School Courts.

Friday evening, NIU will play its final non-conference match of the season as the Huskies face Chicago State in the Nelson Tennis Center beginning at 6 pm. The Huskies will close out the weekend on Sunday versus Ball State, just nine days after falling to the Cardinals in Muncie.

NIU enters the week 2-1 in MAC play after splitting a pair of MAC road matches last weekend, falling 5-2 at Ball State before scoring a 6-1 win over Western Michigan.

Freshman Lucia Yecora is one of four Huskies with double digit singles wins already this season as she won both of her singles matches last weekend to improve to 12-1 on the year. Junior Nataly Ninova leads the team in wins with 14 while Irmak Budak is 13-3 and Maria Dzemeshkevich 12-4.

Men’s Tennis

Saturday, March 29 at UIC, 1 p.m.

The NIU men’s tennis team will be in action on Saturday, March 29 as the Huskies travel to Chicago to take on UIC.

The Huskies dropped both matches 5-2 last week against Buffalo and Toledo will look to bounce back. Saul Berdullas earned wins at No. 2 singles in both matches last week. Iker Gaztambide Arrastia also earned a win at No. 1 singles and Sam Klein earned a win at No. 6 singles.

Track and Field

Friday-Saturday, March 28-29: Redbird Challenge (Normal, Ill.) – Live Results

After being off this past weekend, the NIU women’s track and field team heads to Normal, Ill., for its second outdoor meet of the season as the Huskies compete in the Redbird Challenge on Friday and Saturday. The hammer throw will be the lone event to take place on Friday, beginning at 2 p.m., with competition slated to start at 10 a.m. on Saturday with the discus and long jump. Track events will begin at 12 p.m. on Saturday with the prelims of the 100-meter hurdles.

In the first outdoor meet of the season, the Myrtle Beach Collegiate Challenge, Malia Watkins won the long jump title while Jasmijn Raes claimed the high jump crown. Watkins won the high jump with a new PR, and meet record, jump of 6.00 meters (19-08.25) while Raes cleared 1.71 meters (5-07.25) to take the top spot in the high jump.