TUCSON, Ariz. (February 19, 2022) – A battle between two of the top programs in the West came down to a deciding match Saturday afternoon in Tucson, Ariz.
San Jose State (3-1), the defending Mountain West Conference champions, held off the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks (1-3), coming off their second straight Big Sky Conference title, for the 4-3 victory after a pair of closely contested matches at No. 3 and No. 4 closed out the day.
Having dropped her first set 6-4 to Rozalina Youseva, sophomore
Ava Neyestani's second set closely resembled the pattern of her opener. Trading games with Rozalina Youseva throughout the set, tying five times throughout, Neyestani ultimately fell 7-5 to close out the victory for the Spartans.
Neyetani battled with Youseva through the entirety of her match on Court 4. The two also tied four times through the first eight games of their first set before Youseva broke through with a pair of victories to take the set, just as she would do in the second set.
Neyestani's match became the decider thanks to
Sofia Markova' 7-5, 6-4 battle against San Jose State's Irena Muradyan to tie the team match for the third time at 3-3.
After taking a 2-0 lead in the first set, Markova ended up tied with Muradyan at 2-2, 4-4 and 5-5 before holding out for the win with a pair of games to close out the set. Tying at 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3 in the second set, Markova pulled away thanks to consecutive victories and tied the team match for the final time.
Opening up singles trailing 1-0 after San Jose State's pair of wins, Northern Arizona evened the match for the first time on Court 1 as
Gina Dittmann bounced back from her second loss of the season with a dominant win over Oleksandra Andrieieva. Tied 2-2 in the opening set, Dittmann went on to take 10 of the next 12 games from Andrieieva, an All-Conference USA player for Old Dominion last season, to close out Northern Arizona's first victory of the day.
At No. 5,
Elinor Beazley followed with a convincing victory of her own against San Jose State's Raquel Villan Pereira.
Leading 2-1 in the opening set, Beazley held off Pereira as the Spartan evened the score at 3-3. Beazley came away with a 6-4 victory in the first set before cruising to a 6-1 victory in the second.
Just as Dittmann did, Beazley's win temporarily tied the match for Northern Arizona, as San Jose State's doubles victory to start the day ultimately remained the difference in the match. While
Mimi Bland and
Annabel Davis led 5-4 on Court 1, San Jose State finished out 6-2 victories at both No. 2 and No. 3 to claim the first point of the day.
After Dittmann evened the score at 1-1, San Jose State retook the lead with a singles win at No. 2. Another win at No. 6 after Beazley evened the score at 2-2 paved the way for the final two singles matches to go the distance.
Northern Arizona will now turn its attention to Big Sky Conference play, as the Lumberjacks travel north to Utah for a pair of matches next week. First, it will be a rematch of last season's Big Sky Conference championship match with the Weber State Wildcats on Friday, Feb. 25 before Northern Arizona stops in Salt Lake City to face the Utah Utes on Sunday, Feb. 27.
For updated scores and coverage of the NAU women's tennis team during the spring season, follow the team on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook.
