FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 1, 2022) – Continuing an impressive run through Big Sky Conference play over the past two weeks, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks extended their win streak Friday morning in Bozeman, Montana.
Handing the Montana State Bobcats a 6-1 loss on their home courts, Northern Arizona (6-7, 4-1 Big Sky) won their fourth straight match and fifth in the past six outings. Four Lumberjacks extended their singles winning streaks against the Bobcats (5-14, 2-4) while a pair of doubles partners did the same.
Mimi Bland, the reigning Big Sky Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week, and partner
Annabel Davis improved to 4-2 this season with a 6-3 victory over Marta Garcia-Reboredo and Mirte Van Baelen at No. 1. Winning their sixth straight match together,
Gina Dittmann and
Ava Neyestani then clinched the first point of the day with a 6-4 victory over JJ Chen and Andrea Cuquerella on Court 3.
From there, four Lumberjacks closed out their matches in straight sets.
Elinor Beazley's 6-4, 6-3 win against Maria Villarejo at No. 4 made it back-to-back victories for the junior following last Sunday's win over Eastern Washington.
Laura Duhl won her third straight match, beating Cuquerella 6-3, 6-2, and Neyestani earned her fourth consecutive victory 6-0, 6-4 at No. 6 against Chen.
Sofia Markova improved to 8-4 overall, and 7-2 on Court 3, with her 6-4, 6-3 victory against Jazmin Lerman as the sophomore won her sixth straight singles match.
A pair of singles matches at the top of the order came down to a third set, with Dittmann and Bland pushed to a third set after dropping the second.
After opening with a 6-2 victory, Dittmann dropped a set to Garcia-Reboredo by the same score before retaking control for a 6-1 win at No. 1. The sophomore improved to 10-2 this season with her ninth consecutive victory, and now 24-3 in her career at the top spot in the order. As for Bland, she too opened with a 6-3 win before falling to Van Baelen by the same scored in the second. Forced into a tiebreaker with the third set even at 6-6, Bland fell 7-5 to snap her four-match win streak.
Northern Arizona now heads to Missoula for a meeting with the Montana Grizzlies on Saturday at 1 p.m. Montana snapped a nine-match losing streak to Division I opponents on Friday as it defeated the Idaho State Bengals 5-2 at home. Now 6-12 overall and 1-5 in conference play, the Grizzlies swept doubles before winning on Courts 1, 2, 4 and 6 in singles.
For updated scores and coverage of the NAU Women's Tennis team during the spring season, follow the team on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook.
