FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (January 23, 2021) – After more than 10 months away from competition, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks returned to the courts on Saturday afternoon with quite the statement.
Coming away from their doubleheader against the Dixie State Trailblazers with a pair of 7-0 victories, the Lumberjacks cruised through their first day of competition with all new doubles pairings and a pair of true freshmen seeing plenty of success.
"It was great to be on the court again, compete and see all those ladies get after it," said NAU head coach
Ewa Bogusz. "It's the beginning of the season, yet we are in such a good place in my mind. We performed and we did exactly what we worked on in the first week or so."
NAU made quick work of the Dixie State in the day's first set of doubles matches beginning at 9 a.m. Pulling ahead on all three courts from the start, the Lumberjacks swept the Trailblazers to earn the first point of the day.
Getting NAU on the board first, freshman
Gina Dittmann and sophomore
Elinor Beazley cruised past Sabrina Longson and Alexandra Hildreth on Court 2 for a 6-0 victory. Senior
Ellie Millard paired with sophomore
Mimi Bland at No. 1 for a 6-1 victory over Ya-Chi Hsu and Rachel Mellor. While the top pairing clinched the point, freshman
Ava Neyestani and senior
Madi Moore earned their 6-1 victory at No. 3 just moments later.
With their first career doubles wins already in hand, Dittmann and Neyestani easily earned their first singles victories as well. At No. 5, Neyestani swept Juliana Honczaruk with a 6-0, 6-0 final score to put the Lumberjacks ahead 2-0.
Dittman also put up a 6-0 to start her singles match against Hsu, finishing off the victory at No. 2 with a 6-2 second set. Beazley then clinched the match for NAU with her 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 4 against Longson.
While the match score may have been decided, NAU and Dixie State played all the way to the end as Millard, Bland and Moore all closed out their wins in tiebreakers. Bland finished on Court 3 with a 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 final, with the third set decided by the tiebreaker. Millard closed out her match at No. 1 with a 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 victory while Moore outlasted Hildreth at No. 6 for a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) win.
Kicking off the second match of the day at 2 p.m., NAU's doubles pairings again came out quickly against Dixie State. Millard and Bland paired up at No. 1 again, and finished up a 6-1 victory over Kyra Harames and Sabrina Longson to clinch the doubles point.
Moore and Neyestani moved up to No. 2 in the afternoon, closing out doubles with a 6-3 victory while Beazley and Dittmann started the second match with a 6-1 win at No. 3.
Needing all new doubles partners across the board, Bogusz landed on the season opening pairs in the past week.
"Mimi and Ellie, they have experience and they have played some good matches in the previous years," Bogusz said. "I thought they were going to handle playing at No. 1 really well and they did. I'm really looking forward to seeing big things at that spot. And honestly, the other two pairs, I just wanted the players who have already been here to kind of guide the freshmen and it worked out pretty well."
The Lumberjacks quickly clinched their second victory of the day as Neyestani, Millard and Moore all won in straight sets at No. 4, No. 2 and No. 6 respectively. For Neyestani, it was her second 6-0, 6-0 victory of the day with the freshman impressing in her Lumberjack debut.
"It's not all about a score, but we didn't expect her not to drop a game in singles," Bogusz said. "So that was great to see. She's just such a solid player."
After Beazley closed out her match at No. 5 with a 6-3, 6-2 win, Dittmann registered her second victory of her college career with a 7-5, 6-2 victory after moving up to the top spot in the lineup.
"Gina, she played high in the lineup right away and I was expecting she would produce some results for us," Bogusz said. "She just proved that she belongs there."
Bland capped off the day with another victory in a third-set tiebreaker, winning 10-6, after opening her match at No. 3 with scores of 5-7, 6-4.
Now 2-0 to start the regular season, the Lumberjacks will head to Tempe to face the Arizona State Sun Devils (1-1) next Sunday.
