ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Northern Arizona men's tennis team competed in its last regular season road match Monday morning garnering a 5-2 victory against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds in St. George, Utah.
The Lumberjacks solidified a spot in the Big Sky Conference championships after Idaho defeated Southern Utah with the same 5-2 score this past weekend.
Northern Arizona increases to 8-2 in the Big Sky and evens the overall record 10-10 going into its final weekend of regular season action.
"We were in a tough match today, but came through with the win," Director of Tennis
Ki Kroll said. "I'm very proud of the guys; they showed a lot of grit and determination against a strong Thunderbird team."
Northern Arizona's
Adi Zilberstein and
Lucas Taylor started off strong for the Lumberjacks winning first in doubles 6-2 before
Ruben Montano and
Sebastian Eguez clinched the point with a 6-3 win.
Southern Utah gained some momentum winning at the No. 5 position over Eguez to tie it up at the beginning of singles before Northern Arizona finished it off with three straight wins from Fisher, Handel and Montano.
Fisher took on the Thunderbirds' Conor Tordoff defeating him 6-0, 6-3 at the No. 3 position. Handel followed shortly after picking up his 10
th overall win this season, eighth in conference, 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 against SUU's Jonathan Morales.
Montano clinched the win at 4-1 with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 victory against Thunderbirds' Guy Feigin. This win-clinching match pushed Montano to 12 overall wins this season, the most for a single Lumberjack this season.
Senior
Felix Schumann also picked up a win before Southern Utah finished the match off with a final score of 5-2.
Northern Arizona will host its final two matches of the season against Sacramento State and Mesa Community College Saturday, April 21 at the Aquatic and Tennis Complex. The NAU Lumberjacks and Sac State Hornets will compete first at 10 a.m., honoring the four seniors in Eguez,
Harun Ajanovic, Schumann and Zilberstein, before taking on the Mesa CC Thunderbirds at 3 p.m.
