A pair of championship events are on tap this weekend as the NIU Wrestling team heads to Detroit, Mich., for the NCAA Championships while the NIU Gymnastics team travels to Ypsilanti, Mich., for the Mid-American Conference Championships. The Huskie softball and women's tennis teams will begin conference play this week while the baseball and men's tennis teams will also be in action.
Wrestling at NCAA Championship (Little Caesars Arena, Detroit) | Championship Information
Thursday, March 17: 11 am (ESPNU), 6 pm (ESPN)
Friday, March 18: 10 am (ESPNU), 7 pm (ESPN)
Saturday, March 19: 10 am (ESPNU), 6 pm (ESPN)
NIU Wrestling sends its three MAC champions – Izzak Olejnik, Mason Kauffman and Brit Wilson - to the NCAA Championships starting Thursday at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Olejnik, the number-11 seed at 165 pounds, opens his second run at the NCAAs against Gardner-Webb's Rodrick Mosley. Mason Kauffman makes his second NCAA appearance at 174 pounds and is seeded 22nd. Kauffman, last year's Elite 90 Award recipient as the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the NCAA Championships, will face Peyton Mocco of Missouri in the first round. Three-time MAC champion Brit Wilson will be wrestling at his fourth straight NCAA Championship. Wilson is seeded 12th at 184 pounds and will face Tate Samuelson of Wyoming. The redshirt-senior finished sixth at the 2021 NCAA Championship to earn All-America honors.
Softball
Friday, March 18: at Bowling Green, 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 19: at Bowling Green, 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
The Huskie softball team heads to Bowling Green this weekend to open Mid-American Conference play. NIU will face the Falcons once on Friday before taking on Bowling Green in a doubleheader on Saturday. The Huskies enter league play with a 6-9 overall record after dropping a trio of game this past weekend at Southern Illinois' Saluki Invitational. Katie Keller continues to impress offensively for the Huskies, hitting .510, Kara Apato is just behind with a .420 batting average.
Baseball
Friday, March 18: at Akron, 2 p.m. | Live Stats
Saturday, March 19: at Akron, 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. | Live Stats
Sunday, March 20: at Akron, 12 p.m. | Live Stats
NIU Baseball is on the road this weekend to take on the Akron Zips. The Huskies opened MAC play last week going 1-1 at Ohio. NIU split a doubleheader with the Bobcats, winning the nightcap 9-4. Sophomore Eric Erato drove in three runs in that game with a leadoff home run and a two-run double. NIU won three out of four games against Akron last season at Ralph McKinzie Field.
Men's Tennis
Friday, March 18: at Binghamton, 2 p.m.
Sunday, March 20: at Buffalo, 11 a.m.
The Huskie men's tennis team heads east for its first road conference games of the season this weekend. NIU will meet Binghamton on Friday before facing Buffalo on Sunday. The Huskies will head to the Empire State with a 6-5 overall record despite dropping its first two conference matches this past weekend against Toledo and Ball State. Mikael Vollbach won both of his singles matches against the Rockets and Cardinals to improve his record to 8-1 in dual matches this season.
Gymnastics
Saturday, March 19: MAC Championships, hosted by Eastern Michigan (Ypsilanti, Mich.), 1 p.m. | ESPN3 | Live Stats
Coming off a school record 196.350 this past Saturday at Eastern Michigan, the NIU women's gymnastics team will return to Ypsilanti this week for the Mid-American Conference Championships on Saturday afternoon. Seven Huskies set or tied their career highs and five different gymnasts won event titles in the regular season finale against the Eagles. A full preview of this week's MAC Championship will be available later this week on NIUHuskies.com.
Women's Tennis
Sunday, March 20: Bowling Green, 1 p.m.
The NIU women's tennis team takes a three-match win streak into Mid-American Conference play as it opens its league slate on Sunday against Bowling Green. The match against the Falcons is slated for 1 p.m. at Boylan Tennis Center in Rockford, Ill. The Huskies return to action following a two-week break after topping both Chicago State, 7-0, and Valparaiso, 4-3, on March 6. Reagan Welch has a team-high 11 singles victories in dual matches while Diana Lukyanova and Anastasia Rakita each have 10 wins.
Alerts Sign-up