FARMINGTON, Utah (April 19, 2022) – Wrapping up their regular season with two more wins, bringing the team's streak to eight consecutive matches, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks earned one last weekly honor from the Big Sky Conference.
Finishing 4-0 in singles and doubles play against Portland State and Grand Canyon, sophomore
Sofia Markova earned her first career Big Sky Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week award. Markova's honor makes it five consecutive weeks a Lumberjack was named player of the week by the Big Sky and the fifth different player to do so.
Along with
Gina Dittmann (March 22),
Mimi Bland (March 29),
Ava Neyestani (April 5) and
Elinor Beazley (April 12), Markova makes it the first time in program history five different players have earned the honor in a single season. Markova's award also gives the Lumberjacks nine different players to earn player of the week in the past four seasons.
Entering the weekend on an eight-match win streak in singles play, Markova made it 10 straight with wins against Portland State on Saturday and Grand Canyon on Monday to conclude her regular season. Beating Portland State's Jacinta Milenkoski 6-0, 6-3 and Grand Canyon's Autum Prudhomme 6-2, 6-0, Markova has won 13 straight sets and 20 of 22 sets during her singles win streak. The win against Milenkoski clinched the team victory against Portland State while the victory against Grand Canyon was the first singles match to be completed.
Markova dominated both matches this past week, with just nine games dropped in her past three victories all coming at No. 2. Markova improved to 3-1 on Court 2 this season and 12-4 overall in singles play during her first season with Northern Arizona.
Paired with
Laura Duhl in doubles, Markova defeated Portland State's Milenkoski and Makoto Ohara 6-4 and Grand Canyon's Jana Weiss and Valentina Del Marco 6-2 at No. 3. In both matches, Markova and Duhl finished first to give the Lumberjacks their first wins of each day. The duo are now 3-1 overall this season after first pairing together over the past six matches since the end of March.
Northern Arizona is idle until Friday, April 29 when they return to the courts for the semifinals of the Big Sky Conference Tournament at Phoenix Tennis Center. Granted the No. 2 seed and a bye through the Big Sky quarterfinals on April 28, Northern Arizona shared the regular season championship with Weber State at 7-1 in conference play. The Lumberjacks will play the winner of the No. 3 vs. No. 6 match at the conference tournament, with seedings still to be determined due to a pair of Big Sky matches remaining this week.
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