FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (March 13, 2022) – Finally back in Flagstaff following seven matches on the road to open their spring schedule, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks proved to be just dominant at home as they were a year ago.
Beating the New Mexico State Aggies (1-11) 6-1 Sunday morning at the Aquatic and Tennis Complex, Northern Arizona (2-6) snapped a five-match losing streak filled with close decisions where the Lumberjacks came up just short. Extending their home win streak to 19 matches dating back to the 2018-19 season, the Lumberjacks opened a five-match home schedule with an impressive result.
"It was great to finally be home, I feel like we needed it," said Lumberjacks head coach
Ewa Bogusz. "Even though we had some tough matches in the doubles lineup, we definitely showed up in singles and took care of business. We still have a long way to go, and we are looking into the conference season now. It's a great win, but it's still a learning experience as well."
Looking to win the doubles point for the second straight match, Northern Arizona battled back from an early 1-0 deficit to capture the point with wins on Courts 2 and 3.
After falling behind 2-1 in the opening three games,
Gina Dittmann and
Ava Neyestani bounced back with five straight games, including a trio of break points against Miranda Bishard and Bella Nguyen. With No. 3 locked up thanks to the 6-2 victory, it was up to
Elinor Beazley and
Laura Duhl to close out the match's first point.
Down 4-3, the Lumberjacks' pairing won a crucial break point to turn the tide of the match. After Duhl gave the team the lead at 5-4 win her win on serve and New Mexico State held, Beazley broke the 5-5 tie with a decisive win back on serve. From there, the Lumberjacks rattled off four straight points for the break and match point against New Mexico State's Gavi Kalaga and Natsuki Nishimura.
The pairing's first win of the spring together came after a pair of close calls on the road over the past two weeks. With their match against Utah stopped at 6-6, the duo went into a tiebreaker against Wyoming last week before falling 7-6 in the match.
"It's fun to watch Laura and Elinor together," Bogusz said. "I think they click together really well, and I think we can count on them to bring the energy whenever we need it."
Moving into singles play, Northern Arizona took five opening sets in rather dominant fashion including 6-1 wins for Dittmann at No. 1 and a returning
Mimi Bland at No. 3, as well as 6-2 wins for
Sofia Markova at No. 4 and Duhl at No. 6.
Dittmann became the first singles court to close out a win, beating New Mexico State's Chloe Gavino 6-1, 6-1 before the Aggies earned their lone point of the day with a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 2.
Bland, Markova and Duhl wound up in a race for the third and fourth points as their scores nearly mirrored one another. Bland put the Lumberjacks ahead 3-1 with a 6-1, 6-2 against Nishimura and Duhl just edged out Markova with her 6-2, 6-2 victory on Court 6. Markova followed seemingly seconds later with her own 6-2, 6-2 at No. 4 as eyes turned to Neyestani at No. 5.
Winning all eight of her home matches as a freshman last season, and all in straight sets, Neyestani produced another win in the streak with a 6-3, 6-3 score to close out the 6-1 victory.
Northern Arizona heads to California next week for a pair of matches, including their return to Big Sky Conference play. After beginning the trip on Thursday against the San Francisco Dons for an 11 a.m. start, the Lumberjacks will face the Sacramento State Hornets (1-11) on Saturday, March 19 at Noon. From there, the Lumberjacks will host a pair of conference foes the following week with the Idaho State Bengals arriving on Wednesday, March 23 for a 10 a.m. start and the Eastern Washington Eagles on Sunday, March 27 for a 2 p.m. start.
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