Share Tweet Share Email

Tennis’ Bartiuk named to All-MAC First Team

April 28, 2011
Maksym Bartiuk

Maksym Bartiuk

Northern Illinois sophomore Maksym Bartiuk capped off his second spring season by being named to the All-MAC First Team, announced by the conference office.

The postseason honor is Bartiuk’s third in his young career after being named to the First Team last season, as well as earning the MAC Newcomer of the Year award a season ago.

“It is a great honor for Maksym to be named all-conference for the second year in a row, we are happy and excited for him,” said NIU head coach Patrick Fisher. “Not too many players earn first team all-conference in their first two seasons so his career at NIU is obviously off to a great start and he is on his way to becoming one of the best players ever in the program.

“Last year he was a bit of an unknown but he backed up his success from last year with another good season this year and he did it against a tougher schedule. When you are a good player you have success no matter who the opponent is or whether they know you or not, and clearly Maksym is a good player.”

On the year, Bartiuk compiled a 17-9 mark and went 2-3 against MAC competition — two of his losses coming in tightly contested matches against fellow MAC first teamers.

Prior to the start of the conference season, the native of Ukraine went on a tear, winning nine of 10 matches from Feb. 18 to March 23. During the first weekend in that stretch, Bartiuk earned MAC Player of the Week honors on Feb. 23 after going 2-0 on the weekend, including earning his signature win of the season over nationally-ranked Northwestern’s No. 1, Joshua Graves, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

In two seasons, Bartiuk has racked up a 30-15 overall record, while going 5-4 in the MAC, playing primarily in the No. 1 singles position for the Huskies.

“Guys that work hard, do all the right things, are great team players and great leaders tend to have great results and Maksym has done all of those things for us so it’s not a surprise to see him have success.”

For more information on NIU men’s tennis and Huskie athletics, visit www.niuhuskies.com.