FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April 27, 2022) – Looking for a third straight Big Sky Conference Tournament championship, and a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Northern Arizona women's tennis will begin its title defense on Friday in Phoenix.
Playing at the Phoenix Tennis Center, just about two hours south of Flagstaff, the Lumberjacks enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed following a 7-1 regular season record that earned the team a share of the Big Sky Conference regular season title. Finishing their eight-match schedule with a combined score of 42-14, the Lumberjacks led the conference in total points.
Now on an eight-match win streak dating back to March 18 with a 10-7 record overall, Northern Arizona dropped three of its seven losses by a 4-3 score. Among those three losses was the Lumberjacks only Big Sky loss to co-champion Weber State, falling 4-3 in Ogden, Utah on Feb. 25. Northern Arizona dropped the doubles point after falling 7-5 at No. 1 and 7-6 at No. 2 before splitting singles play with wins at No. 1, No. 4 and No. 5.
The victory earned Weber State the No. 1 seed in the tournament, with the two teams awaiting the winners of Thursday's 8 a.m. quarterfinal matchups. Finishing the conference schedule with a 5-3 record, including losses to the top two seeds and Montana, Idaho State enters as the No. 3 seed. Five schools finished with a 3-5 record in the Big Sky, with Sacramento State, Portland State and Idaho emerging with berths to the tournament.
Sacramento State and Portland State, seeded No. 4 and No. 5 respectively, will face off in one quarterfinal while Idaho and in-state rival Idaho State matchup as the No. 6 and No. 3 seeds.
Northern Arizona will face the highest remaining seed in the semifinals with Weber State taking on the lower seed of the two. The two semifinal matches will begin simultaneously on Friday at 8 a.m. with the finals set for 8 a.m. on Saturday.
Gina Dittmann enters the tournament with the conference's best singles record at 14-2, all coming at No. 1. Dittmann also paired with
Ava Neyestani for the Big Sky's best doubles record at 10-0.
Sofia Markova's 12-4 mark in her first collegiate season ranked second to Dittmann in the conference while
Mimi Bland's 7-3 record fourth in win percentage. Bland and
Annabel Davis also finished fourth in the conference at No. 1 in doubles.
Dittmann currently holds a 13-match win streak in singles, followed by 10 straight matches for Markova. While Dittmann and Neyetani's perfect record in doubles includes the team's top win streak, Markova and Duhl have won back-to-back matches and hold a 3-1 record together.
Over their final five weeks of the regular season, five different Lumberjacks earned Big Sky Conference Player of the Week honors. Dittmann began the run on March 22, followed by Bland (March 29), Neyestani (April 5),
Elinor Beazley (April 12) and finally Markova (April 19).
IDAHO STATE
Taking two of three doubles matches, the Lumberjacks beat the Idaho State Bengals 6-1 on March 23 in Flagstaff.
After Northern Arizona dropped Court 2, Bland and Davis earned a 6-2 victory at No. 1 against Hana Cho and Leah Kuruvilla. Dittmann and Neyestani soon clinched the point with a 6-3 win against Megan Lang-Gould and Alexandra Arkhipov.
Idaho State tied the match at 1-1 with a win at No. 4 before the Lumberjacks earned the final five points of the day. Bland beat Lang-Gould 6-2, 6-4 and Dittmann beat Cho 6-2, 6-3 to set up Northern Arizona for the clinching match. Neyestani closed out her match at No. 6 with Arkhipov 6-3, 7-5 to finish off the team match before Markova and
Laura Duhl won in three sets at No. 3 and No. 5 respectively.
Twins Lola O'Lideadha and Sol O'Lideadha lead the Bengals with 11-6 and 10-5 singles records respectively. Lola O'Lideadha's 9-5 record is second among Big Sky players and Sol O'Lideadha's 7-4 mark at No. 4 is second as well.
SACRAMENTO STATE
The first victory to begin their eight-match win streak, Northern Arizona defeated Sacramento State 5-2 in Sacramento on March 18.
Dittmann and Neyestani opened doubles play with a 6-0 win over Shauna Casey and Alexis Johnson at No. 3 with Bland and Davis clinching the point by beating Weronika Ejsmont and Best Lee 6-1 at No. 1.
Bland and Dittmann quickly pushed the lead to 3-0 with 6-2, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-2 wins over Maddy Ferreros and Ejsmont at No. 2 and No. 1. Neyestani then clinched the win over Megan Tagaloa 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6 and Markova closed out Northern Arizona's points with a 6-0, 7-5 victory at No. 3 against Tsveti Yotova.
Sacramento State's pair of wins came in third-set tiebreakers at No. 4 and No. 5 by Paige Alter and Lee.
Johnson holds the top singles record on the Hornets at 7-4 overall and paired with Ferreros for a 6-6 record at No. 3 in doubles. Alter and Yotova, who earned a 6-2 win against the Lumberjacks, lead the team with a 5-0 record on Court 2.
PORTLAND STATE
Closing out their conference schedule with a 5-2 win against the Vikings on April 16, the Lumberjacks clinched the doubles point with a 6-4 win by Duhl and Markova over Jacinta Milenkoski and Makoto Ohara at No. 3 and a 7-5 win for Dittmann and Neyestani against Mariajosé Hernandez Coronado and Emily Rees at No. 2. Beazley and Davis nearly completed the sweep before their tiebreaker was halted with the pairing up 2-1 tied at 6-6.
A retirement near the end of the first set by Capu Sanoner gave Dittmann the first singles win with
Annabel Davis winning 6-4, 6-0 over Hernandez Coronado at No. 6. Similar to their win at Portland State, Northern Arizona won four singles matches, with Markova's 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 3 and Beazley's 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 4 closing out the day, before dropping the last two matches in third-set tiebreakers.
Sanoner (6-5), Hernandez Coronado (9-8) and Ohara (8-8) all rank among the conference leaders in singles play with Sanoner trailing only Dittmann (14-2) at No. 1.
Sanoner and Nika Beukers also hold the conference's second-best doubles record behind Dittmann and Neyestani's 10-0 mark, entering the tournament 11-2 with all 13 matches at No. 1. Hernandez Coronado and Rees sit fourth in the Big Sky at 12-3 overall, with a 4-1 mark at No. 1 and 8-2 record at No. 2.
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