FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 16, 2022) – Make it six consecutive regular seasons atop the Big Sky Conference for the Northern Arizona women's tennis team.
Winning their seventh straight match dating back to mid-March, the Lumberjacks closed out the conference schedule with a share of the regular season championship thanks to a 7-1 Big Sky record. Locked into the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament set begin on Thursday, April 28, the Lumberjacks finished with a conference-best 42 points in their eight conference matches as they made it six consecutive seasons with a share or the outright regular season crown.
Finishing with a perfect home record for a third straight season, Northern Arizona moved to 23 consecutive wins in Flagstaff and 31 straight at home against the Big Sky Conference.
"That just shows how much we love playing here," said Lumberjacks head coach
Ewa Bogusz. "We want to defend our house and we always show up. It's great to have fans up there supporting the team. I think that's a huge part of it, to have support behind you from the community, from the men's team and it's just fun playing here, and I think everybody on the team feels it."
Looking to lock up their share of the conference title, the Lumberjacks found themselves in a postseason atmosphere early on against the Vikings.
With all three doubles courts never separated by more than two games, Northern Arizona put together a tremendous day against one of the best and most consistent doubles schools in the Big Sky.
Entering with two of the top three win totals and win percentages, the Vikings pairings of Capu Sanoner and Nika Beukers, and Mariajose Hernandez Coronado and Emily Rees, took 2-0 leads early on at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. Both teams remained ahead at 3-2, but Northern Arizona's top two doubles pairs began to rally back.
Laura Duhl and
Sofia Markova earned a 6-4 victory at No. 3, winning three of the final four games culminating in Markova's clincher on serve, over Jacinta Milenkoski and Makoto Ohara for the first win of the day and set the stage for a battle for the doubles point. From there, it was a race between Northern Arizona's top two pairings of
Elinor Beazley and
Annabel Davis, as well as
Gina Dittmann and
Ava Neyestani, to rally back for the clinching point.
A break for Beazley and Davis evened the match at 3-3, beginning to turn the tide against Beukers and Sanoner, who entered with the most doubles wins at No. 1 in the Big Sky this season. A win on Beazley's serve and another break pushed the Lumberjacks in front 5-3, but the Vikings' duo rallied for three consecutive games themselves.
While Beazley and Davis found themselves on the receiving end of a potential match clinching game, Dittmann and Neyestani played to ties at two, three and four games apiece. After winning on Neyestani's serve and breaking the Vikings for a 6-5 lead, Dittmann clinched the victory on serve with a win at 40-40 of the 12th game. Winning for the ninth straight time since being paired together, Dittmann and Neyestani's win against Rees and Hernandez Coronado was just the third defeat this season as the two fell to 11-3 together.
After a breakpoint victory forced a tiebreaker for Beazley and Davis, the duo was prevented from a second straight win together as their 2-1 lead in the tiebreaker became the end of the match with Beukers and Sanoner.
Up 1-0 for the sixth time in the past seven matches, Northern Arizona once again cruised to a team victory behind a few impressive singles wins.
Dittmann extended her singles win streak to 12 consecutive matches and finished another season with a perfect singles record in Flagstaff as the sophomore led Sanoner 5-0 before Portland State's All-Big Sky First Teamer from 2021 retired from the match.
Back in the singles lineup for the first time since March 17 due to last week's default by Idaho, freshman
Annabel Davis defeated Hernandez Coronado for the second singles victory and third point of the day. After dropping the opening game of the first set, Davis took a 4-3 lead and closed out the opener with wins in two of the final three games. Quickly taking control of the match, Davis rolled to a 6-0 second set victory for her second career singles win.
"She's a great doubles player and last week to close it out at No. 1 and today was so, so close," Bogusz said. "It was very good to see that no matter what we throw at her, she finds success in the situation."
With just one point needed to clinch the team victory, it came down to Markova at No. 2 and Beazley at No. 3 to clinch the share of the Big Sky title.
Markova cruised to a 6-0 victory against Milenkoski while Beazley battled with Beukers for much of her opening set before pulling out the win. Leading 3-2 early on, Beazley finished out the set with a 6-4 win.
Winning a breakpoint to take a 3-2 lead on Court 2, Markova took control of her second set while Beazley produced a pair of breakpoints in her final three games to turn a 3-2 lead into a 6-2 final. However, Markova finished up her match with a 6-0, 6-3 win to edge Beazley for the clinching point with the junior following up for a 5-0 lead soon after at 6-4, 6-2.
With the team victory in hand, Northern Arizona's final two matches of the day went to third-set tiebreakers for both Duhl and Neyestani.
After winning her opener 6-3 against Ohara, Duhl dropped the second set 6-4. For Neyestani, it was a flipped result in the first two sets as she fell to Rees 6-2 in the first set before dominating early in the second. Taking a 5-1 advantage and eventually clinching on a breakpoint at 6-4, Neyestani joined Duhl in a tiebreaker.
Duhl and Ohara battled back-and-forth early, with Northern Arizona's sophomore tied at six different scores before dropping the final three points for a 10-7 loss. Neyestani took a 3-1 lead early against Rees and drew back even at 5-5 following four straight points for the Vikings' No. 4.
However, the Portland State senior claimed the final five points as the team match closed at a 5-2 final score.
Northern Arizona will now return to the Valley for the first time since mid-January with a preview of the Big Sky Tournament conditions in Phoenix as they face the Grand Canyon Lopes (8-8, 4-0 WAC) to close the regular season. The WAC's Western Division champions, Grand Canyon will host Northern Arizona on Monday at 11 a.m.
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