FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 13, 2021) – With the doubles point in hand, a quick start in singles on Court 4 offered a glimpse of what was to come for the Northern Arizona women's tennis team against the Utah State Aggies Saturday afternoon.
Freshman
Ava Neyestani jumped ahead with a 6-0 first set victory, her fifth straight playing at home, while sophomores
Mimi Bland and
Elinor Beazley similarly locked up first-set victories early on in the Aquatic and Tennis Complex.
Bland would close out her match at No. 3 first, soon followed by Neyestani with Beazley locking up the team victory thanks to a 4-0 advantage, and eventual 5-2 final, as the Lumberjacks improved to 3-3 this season and dropped the Aggies to 1-4.
"When she lost the first game, I was like 'Dang it, she dropped a game at home'," said NAU head coach
Ewa Bogusz. "Super happy with how she performed and how she used the things she worked on this past week. She definitely gave us some momentum going into singles. Crashing the first set so quickly, that makes everybody else playing next to her feel good. It takes the pressure off the others."
Just a few courts over from Neyestani, Bland came away with a 6-1 first set victory as she led from the start on Court 3. The two took 3-2 leads in their second set before half of the Lumberjacks' lineup wrapped up their first, and clinched their victories roughly an hour in singles play.
Meanwhile at No. 5, Beazley battled for a 6-4 win in the first set before rolling to a 6-1 second set to clinch the team win just a few minutes after Neyestani finished up at No. 4.
The three singles wins wrapped up NAU's 13th straight win in Flagstaff after the Lumberjacks earned the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3.
Beazley and
Gina Dittmann broke out to a 3-0 lead at No. 2 before Utah State's Annaliese Country and Zara Ryan rallied to tie the match at 4-4. However, the pair of underclassmen came away with the final two games of the match, evening the doubles score at 1-1.
At No. 3, Neyestani stepped to the line with a 5-3 advantage while on serve. With Utah State sending the ball long during a rally, Neyestani and
Madi Moore put NAU ahead 1-0.
The final team point of the day came at the top of the lineup, as Dittmann improved to 4-1 this season at No. 1 with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Carolina Millian.
Similar to a few of her teammates, Dittmann pulled ahead 3-0 in the opening set against Millian. Turning the eventual 4-2 advantage into a 6-4 victory, Dittmann flipped a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead in the second, going on to win four games later.
Moore and
Ellie Millard found themselves in a pair of battles at No. 6 and No. 2 respectively. Moore trailed 4-1 in the first set before splitting the final four games, taking a 6-3 loss. Building off the success late in the first, Moore traded games with Annaliese County throughout the second.
Trailing 4-3, Moore eventually evened the score and sent the match to a third-set tiebreaker with a 7-5 tiebreak to earn the second set 7-6.
Millard's first set resembled Moore's second, with her match against Ryan staying within a game for nearly the extent of the set. Tied at 2-2 and 5-5, Millard eventually dropped the final two games to take a 7-5 loss, with the second set looking similar to start. Trailing by a game at 1-0, the two battled back and forth until Ryan pulled ahead 5-3 ahead of her eventual victory.
The Lumberjacks now take a week off from competition, returning to the ATC in Flagstaff on Feb. 27 against Wyoming. Currently 3-3 this season, the Cowgirls will arrive in Flagstaff following a weekend trip to Nebraska where they will take on Creighton.
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Match Results:
Doubles:
