UIC concluded its final road match of the regular season with a 5-2 loss to Northern Kentucky at Yeager Tennis Complex Sunday afternoon. The Flames (5-10, 0-5 HL) dropped into last place in the Horizon League following their fourth straight loss, and will likely need wins in each of their final two conference matches to have a chance of qualifying for the conference tournament as one of the top six teams.
Things started well for the Flames on the doubles courts. A pair of 6-2 wins gave UIC their first doubles point in four matches.
Alvaro de la Fuente and
Niko Wasilewicz took down Isache and Lang on the #2 court, and
Carl Hedstrom and
Marcelo Dib vanquished Clemens and Virag at #1 to give the Flames a 1-0 lead in the team score.
"We competed well in the doubles. We had two solid wins to get us off to a good start," head coach
Hans Neufeld said.
Northern Kentucky (6-6, 2-3 HL) scored early and often on the singles courts. Virag handled
Carl Hedstrom at #1, 6-1, 6-2. Clemens took down Wasilewicz at #2, 6-3, 6-2. Though de la Fuente kept things closer at first on the #6 court, he couldn't keep up down the stretch in a 7-5, 6-0 contest.
The Norse were just one point away from clinching the match, but Dib kept UIC alive on the #3 court. He quickly took down Araya, 6-1, in the first set, and gutted out a 7-6 (9-7) second set win to make the team score 3-2.
Johan Hedstrom came back from a set down to force a third set at #5. Niehaus did not let him get any momentum in the deciding set and claimed a 7-6 (7-3), 1-6, 6-1 victory to clinch the win for NKU.
San Andres also got to a third set at #4 but didn't fare much better. Clark snapped his five match winning streak, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
"Marcelo had a nice win today, showing a great effort against a tough opponent," Neufeld said. Araya entered the weekend with a 5-1 record. "Johan and Christian both had good matches. If Johan's first set tiebreaker had gone the other way, he could have given us a crucial point and made Christian's match a decisive one."
The Flames will close out the regular season with four straight matches at home on the Flames Outdoor Tennis Courts. The first of those will be a crucial Horizon League battle against Green Bay on Saturday, April 15.
