BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Sophomore No. 1 Ludovico Cestarollo won his second straight match to start conference play but visiting Northern Illinois (12-6, 1-1 MAC) captured the doubles point and edged Binghamton men's tennis (4-10, 0-2 MAC) in a Mid-American Conference match Sunday morning at the Binghamton Tennis Center.

The Huskies used wins at first and third doubles to grab the opening point and then the teams split the six singles matches. 

Cestarollo paired with classmate Inigo Saez to win at No. 2 doubles and then Cestarollo rolled to a 6-1, 6-4 singles win for his 11th win of the season and second in as many MAC matches.

Also winning for the Bearcats were freshman No. 3 Kushaan Nath and senior No. 5 Thomas Caputo - the latter in straight sets. 

'We put out a much better performance today and put ourselves in the position to win," head coach Nick Zieziula said. "We had the break lead at No. 3 doubles late in the set for the point there ... but didn't stay aggressive enough over the middle and that cost us. We had leads on 2 and 3 that we let get away as well. NIU tends to come-and-go a little in matches and the key is to be even-keeled mentally on your side of the net so that when they get hot you can shut them down. But we didn't do that well enough today. We've go a lot of work to do in order to have a chance at the playoffs."

The Bearcats next face Quinnipiac and Army next Sunday at West Point.

Northern Illinois 4, Binghamton 3
DOUBLES
1. Marbach/Lundkvist (NIU) def. Caputo/Nath (BU), 6-3 
2. Cestarollo/Saez (BU) def. Muzar/Manzanas (NIU), 6-2
3. Hjertonsson/Hamel (NIU) def. Frenk Kote/Viihar Shah (BU), 6-4
Order of Finish: 2,1,3

SINGLES
1. Ludovico Cestarollo (BU) def. Bor Schweiger Muzar (NIU), 6-1, 6-4
2. Georg Lundkvist (NIU) def. Tiago Lourenco (BU), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
3. Kushaan Nath (BU) def. Eric Marbach (NIU), 6-1, 1-6, 6-1
4. Tom Hjertonsson (NIU) def. Valentin Bouchet (BU), 2-6, 6-4, 6-2
5. Thomas Caputo (BU) def. Carlos Manzanas (NIU), 6-0, 6-4
6. Louis-Philippe Hamel (NIU) def. Inigo Saez (BU), 6-3, 6-2
Order of Finish: 1,3,4,2,5,6