SACRAMENTO, Calif. (March 18, 2022) – Bouncing back from a close loss in San Francisco on Thursday, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks captured their first Big Sky Conference win of the season on Friday.
Beating the Sacramento State Hornets (1-12, 0-1 Big Sky) 5-2, Northern Arizona (3-7, 1-1 Big Sky) opened their stretch of seven consecutive conference games with a crucial victory. Voted to finish ninth in the Big Sky this season, the Hornets entered Friday's match on a five-match losing streak. The Lumberjacks extended it to six as they took the opening point of the day with a pair of doubles victories before coming away with the first four singles points.
Gina Dittmann and
Ava Neyestani improved to 3-0 this season as a doubles pairing with a 6-0 victory on Court 3 over Sacramento State's Shauna Casey and Alexis Johnson.
Mimi Bland and
Annabel Davis were not too far behind with the clinching victory as Northern Arizona's No. 1 pair beat Weronika Ejsmont and Best Lee 6-1.
Holding the 1-0 lead going into singles play, Northern Arizona came up with three dominant performances at the top and bottom of the lineup. Bland finished her day with a perfect record, beating Maddy Ferreros 6-2, 6-1 for her second straight singles win and pushed her record at No. 2 to 3-1 this season.
Dittmann and Neyestani each carried over their success from doubles into their singles matches, with the former beating Ejsmont 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 and the former winning 6-3, 6-3 against Megan Tagaloa in her first match at No. 6 this season.
For Dittmann, the win made it six straight in singles play this season and closed out a perfect 4-0 week between doubles and singles in California.
With the team victory already clinched,
Sofia Markova extended her singles win streak to three straight matches and is now 4-2 this season at No. 3. Beating Tsveti Yotova 6-0, 7-5 on Court 3, Markova closed out the victories for Northern Arizona.
Closing out the day with a pair of third-set tiebreakers,
Elinor Beazley and
Laura Duhl narrowly missed making it a 7-0 victory for the Lumberjacks. Duhl's match at No. 5 became the fifth to conclude, with the freshman falling 10-4 in a deciding third set. After falling to Lee 6-4 in the opener, Duhl forced a third set with her 6-2 win in the second set. For Beazley, the junior won 6-4 on Court 4 against Paige Alter and just missed wrapping up the victory with a 7-5 loss in the second set. Just as Duhl did, Beazley fell 10-4 in the deciding tiebreaker with the team result already in hand.
Northern Arizona now returns home to Flagstaff for a pair of matches next week. First hosting the Idaho State Bengals (5-3, 1-0) on Wednesday at 10 a.m., Northern Arizona then faces the Eastern Washington Eagles (3-6, 2-0) at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 27 as part of a doubleheader with the Lumberjack men's program.
Idaho State and Eastern Washington matched up in Pocatello, Idaho on Friday before both heading to Arizona next week. The Eagles were picked to finish third in the Big Sky this season after reaching the Big Sky semifinals last season and the Bengals landed eighth in the preseason poll.
For updated scores and coverage of the NAU women's Tennis team during the spring season, follow the team on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook.
