Box Score DEKALB, Ill. – The Western Michigan men's tennis team won the program's 27th Mid-American Conference Regular Season Championship after defeating Northern Illinois on the road, 5-2, on Saturday.
 
The title is the 12th under head coach Dave Morin and the fourth straight that WMU has won, dating back to 2018 (note: no championship was given out in 2020 due to COVID-19).
 
The Broncos (13-8, 9-1 MAC) earned the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3. WMU went down early after Oliver Valentinsson and Kristopher Ortega defeated Fynn Lohse and Joaquin Caballer 6-0. Western Michigan responded with a win by Anton Arzhankin and Peter Kuszynski at No. 1, 6-4, over Mikael Vollbach and Mikko Malinen. Sophomores  Ferdinand Schlueter and Brogan Pierce secured the doubles point at No. 3 with a 6-4 win over Armin Koschtojan and Christopher Knutson.
 
NIU tied it up at 1-1 with Vollbach defeating Arjun Honnappa 6-4, 6-0 at No. 3. Arzhankin gave the lead back to the Broncos with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Valentinsson at No. 1 but the Huskies responded with a win by Malinen at No. 4 over Benjamin George 6-4, 7-5. Lohse moved up to No. 2 and earned a win over Ortega 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 to give WMU a 3-2 lead before Caballer sealed the match victory and the conference title with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 6 over Luke VanDonslear. Pierce added a win at No. 5, 7-5, 6-3, over Koschtojan.
 
Western Michigan hosts the MAC Tournament on Saturday and Sunday. The Broncos will be in action at 10 a.m. on Saturday as the top seed. The second MAC Semifinals will be played at 2 p.m. The MAC Championship game will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m. Admission to all MAC Tournament matches is free.