AUSTIN, Texas (May 8, 2021) – Looking to see progress from their last appearance in the NCAA Tournament, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks seemed to prove they achieved just that based on their closely-contested battles with the No. 4 Texas Longhorns.
With leads on four singles courts deep into sets at No. 1, 3, 4 and 5, the Lumberjacks forced the defending national champion Longhorns to fight for their 4-0 victory Saturday afternoon in Austin, Texas. The loss wrapped up NAU's season with an 8-9 record, but a closer result in the NCAA Tournament than two years earlier against the USC Trojans.
"I am very proud of our team's effort and strong showing against defending national champions today," said NAU head coach
Maciej Bogusz. "We created chances on many courts and used some of them and most of all our guys had fun while doing it. Thank you to everyone that made our season possible."
Maciej Ziomber and
Eban Straker-Meads impressed in their first singles sets of the day, as the former landed in a tiebreaker and the latter holding a lead midway through the set.
Facing off with Texas' Chih Chi Huang, Ziomber played the longest set of the day for NAU. Leading 2-0 early on, Ziomber battled through ties at 3-3 and 4-4 to come within two points of winning his first set.
With the set back even at 5-5, Ziomber reached breakpoint to regain the lead before Huang battled back to take a 6-5 lead in the set. NAU's freshman quickly won on serve to set up a tiebreaker, where he fell behind 6-0 before rattling off four straight points to ultimately fall 7-6 (7-4).
Straker-Meads flipped a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead in the first set against No. 23 Eliot Spizzirri, the first of three leads Lumberjacks took against the Longhorns' trio of ranked players.
After falling 6-2 in their first sets,
Dominik Buzonics and
Chris Steele impressed after their respective breaks. Buzonics broke serve against No. 75 Siem Woldeab on his way to a 3-2 advantage in his second set before nearly reaching a 4-2 advantage.
Tied at 40-40 on serve, Buzonics just missed a third straight game to pull ahead by a pair of games.
Steele found himself in a similar situation just before his match came to an early end. Taking a 2-0 lead to start the second set, Steele reached a deciding point at 40-40 while holding a 4-1 lead.
During doubles play, Straker-Meads and
Facundo Tumosa opened up with an early 1-1 score on Court 1 against Spizzirri and Woldeab, the No. 11-ranked doubles pairing. Steele and Ziomber were also even at 1-1 on Court 3 against Micah Braswell and Payton Holden. Texas eventually took control on both courts with three games won in a row before eventually winning 6-3 at No. 1 and 6-2 at No. 3.
