FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 29, 2020) – The Northern Arizona women's tennis team fed off each other's energy to earn an impressive 4-2 victory against New Mexico Saturday morning, completing a perfect home-opening weekend in the Aquatic and Tennis Complex. Sophomore
Emilie Haakansson's three-set win at No. 4 singles clinched NAU's third straight victory overall as the 'Jacks improved to 4-3 on the season.
"New Mexico is a good Mountain West team and we showed today what we are made of," said head coach
Ewa Bogusz. "We stayed mentally tough in doubles and it could've gone either way. In singles, we competed one through six really hard and that's what got us through today. Even the matches we lost, they were tight and the energy was flowing."
For the second straight match this week, NAU needed a tough tiebreak win from sophomore
Adrianna Sosnowska and freshman
Mimi Bland to claim the doubles point. After New Mexico took the first match at No. 2, Haakansson and freshman
Elinor Beazley evened doubles play with a 6-4 win over Hsiang-Wen Huang and Yue Lin Chen at No. 3.
Just as they did on Thursday versus Montana, Sosnowska and Bland came through for the Lumberjacks with a 7-6(3) win on court one versus Sara Kuuttila-Webbert and My Kageyama.
Senior
Chiara Tomasetti's eighth consecutive win at No. 1 to open the dual season put the Lumberjacks on top 2-0 in the match. The No. 44 ranked player in the country strung together a brisk 6-2, 6-0 win versus Kuuttila-Webbert.
The five remaining singles matches were tightly contested, even at No. 5 where Bland put NAU within a point of the match with a 7-6(4), 6-4 victory against Alisia Manolescu.
Sosnowska and Beazley battled at the No. 2 and 6 spots respectively, but the Lobos pulled within 3-2 with straight set wins, both of which were decided with tiebreakers in the decisive second set.
Still needing a win in one of the two remaining matches, the 'Jacks got the clincher at No. 4 where Haakansson commanded the third set against Kageyama in an eventual 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 victory. Haakansson is now 6-2 this spring, only trailing Tomasetti's unbeaten 8-0 mark.
Junior
Ellie Millard and Natasha Munday's match at No. 3 went unfinished with the two players locked up at 2-2 in the third set. Munday took the first set, 6-3, before Millard responded in the second set to take it 6-4.
NAU's season-long five-match homestand picks up on Sunday, March 8 with the Lumberjacks facing Pacific at 10 a.m. in the Aquatic and Tennis Complex.
Results:
Doubles:
