PHOENIX, Ariz. (April 18, 2022) – Getting a preview of the Phoenix heat about 10 days before beginning the Big Sky Conference Tournament just a few miles west of the championship site, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks closed out the regular season with another victory.
After taking two of the three doubles matches to open Monday's match against the Grand Canyon Lopes, Northern Arizona won three of the four contested singles matches in addition to a victory by default on Court 5 for a 5-1 victory. Winning their eighth straight match dating back to March 18 in Sacramento, the Lumberjacks will take the streak into the conference tournament as the No. 2 seed, awaiting the winner of the No. 3 and No. 6 on Friday, April 29.
Already having finished the conference schedule with a 7-0 record in doubles,
Gina Dittmann and
Ava Neyestani extended their win streak to 10 straight matches thanks to a 6-4 victory at No. 2 against Grand Canyon's Fabienne Schmidt and Autum Prudhomme.
Dittmann and Neyestani clinched their sixth doubles points of the season in just the 10 matches paired together as
Laura Duhl and
Sofia Markova earned Northern Arizona's first win of the day on Court 3, 6-2 over Jana Weiss and Valentina Del Marco.
The Lumberjacks' early 1-0 lead quickly became 2-0 as
Annabel Davis won by default at No. 5, leaving just four singles matches as neither team placed a player into the match for Court 6.
Entering the day with lengthy singles win streaks stretching back even further than Northern Arizona's team winning streak, Dittmann and Markova quickly jumped ahead on their respective courts.
Markova took a 3-1 lead in the opening set and won nine of the next 10 games as she defeated Prudhomme 6-2, 6-0 at No. 2 for her 10th consecutive victory. Dittmann won the first three games of the day against Strombacha before the transfer from Arizona split the final six games in a 6-3 opening set. Dittmann began the second set by splitting the first four games but won four of the final six to close out her 13th straight singles win and improve her career record to 29-3.
Meanwhile, Duhl earned her first career win at No. 3 with a 6-3, 6-3 win against Aline Buhr to clinch the team victory for the Lumberjacks. While Dittmann, Duhl and Markova earned the three straight-set singles wins of the day, Neyestani landed in a three-set match for the second time in three days.
Facing Kristin Vogel at No. 4, Neyestani fell in the opening set after battling to 2-2 and 4-4 ties. Continuing the close competition in the second set, Neyestani found herself in ties at 3-3 and 5-5 before pulling out a 7-5 victory to force a deciding third-set tiebreaker. Falling 10-6 in the abbreviated set, Neyestani dropped her second straight match in a third-set tiebreaker.
With the win, Northern Arizona's regular season ends with a 10-7 record overall and their 7-1 conference marking earning a share of the Big Sky regular season title. Two Big Sky Conference regular season matches remain on the schedule while will determine the final seeds for the conference tournament.
While Weber State and Northern Arizona have clinched the two byes into Friday's semifinals, Idaho State (11-6, 4-3 Big Sky) and Eastern Washington (4-11, 3-4) each face Idaho (4-11, 2-4) this week. A win by the Bengals would lock up the No. 3 seed while a win by the Vandals against the Eagles could create a five-way tie for fourth, with three emerging from the group with berths to the tournament.
Set to begin on Thursday, April 28 with the quarterfinals, the Big Sky Tournament will run across three days at the Phoenix Tennis Center. The finals for the women's tournament will be held on Saturday, April 30.
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