LARAMIE, Wyo. (March 3, 2022) – Despite winning the doubles point for the first time this season, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks came up short on the road against the Wyoming Cowgirls.
Bouncing back after dropping the first two points of the day, the Cowgirls (6-6) rallied for five straight wins in singles play to prevent the Lumberjacks from snapping a now five-match losing streak while still playing without a pair of All-Big Sky First Teamers.
Northern Arizona (1-6, 0-1 Big Sky) returned the same three doubles teams from its pair of matches last week, with its teams at No. 1 and No. 3 putting the Lumberjacks on the board first Thursday night.
Gina Dittmann and
Annabel Davis took a 3-0 lead against Ida Krause and Maria Oreshkina on Court 1 and closed out the 6-3 victory on serve. With one win in hand,
Sofia Markova and
Ava Neyestani battled through a tight match at No. 3 against Mihaela Kaftanova and Lucia Malinak.
Tied at 1-1, 2-2 and 4-4, Markova and Neyestani traded wins on serve with Wyoming's No. 3 pairing. Leading 6-5 after holding serve once again, Northern Arizona's pair clinched the point by winning on break point.
Dittmann soon put the Lumberjacks ahead 2-0 with a 6-2, 2-0 decision at No. 1 with Oreshkina retiring early on in the second set. Dittmann took a 3-0 lead in the first set and controlled the set before earning the win prematurely.
From there, Northern Arizona dropped a pair of crucial third sets at No. 2 and No. 3 that allowed Wyoming to take the lead.
With a straight-set win at No. 4 bringing them within one point, the Cowgirls withstood
Elinor Beazley's rally at No. 2. Sophie Zehender led 4-0 in the third before Beazley came up with three consecutive games. On serve trailing 4-3, Beazley had the opportunity to even the third set, but Zehender came up with a break point victory before closing out the match 6-3.
Similarly, Markova bounced back from a 6-4 first-set loss to beat Ana Fernandez 6-1 in the second set. Leading 5-3 on serve, Markova reached match point before Fernandez broke serve to take control of the match. Winning on serve to tie the set 5-5, Fernandez closed out the victory with four consecutive games over Markova.
In need of both matches at No. 5 and No. 6, Northern Arizona dropped a third deciding set as Wyoming closed out the team victory.
Winning 6-4 in her first set on Court 5, Davis dropped the second to Ida Krause 6-2. Even at 1-1 and 3-3, Davis pulled ahead with back-to-back games and put herself a game away from victory as Markova had earlier in the night. However, Krause battled back with three straight wins and took over on serve for the fourth and deciding win at 7-5.
With the team victory clinched by the Cowgirls,
Laura Duhl's match at No. 6 continued as the freshman tried to rally back in the second set after dropping the first 6-4. Down 4-1 in the second set, Duhl rallied for four wins in a five-game stretch against Kaftanova to even the set at 5-5.
Forcing a tiebreaker with the final set even at 6-6, Duhl completed the second-set comeback with a 7-5 victory before falling in the deciding third set 10-5.
After playing their first seven matches of the spring season on the road, with two others away from Flagstaff canceled as well, the Lumberjacks will host the New Mexico State Aggies on March 13 in Flagstaff. During the fall, Northern Arizona took three of five singles matches from the Aggies and split a pair of doubles contests during the University of New Mexico's Halloween Classic.
Last spring, Northern Arizona beat New Mexico State in Las Cruces 5-2 to extend their four-match win streak over the Aggies.
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