FARMINGTON, Utah (February 1, 2023) – After putting together a dominant performance last Friday against the Grand Canyon Lopes, junior
Sofia Markova earned Northern Arizona's first Big Sky Conference Women's Tennis Player of the Week award this season.
Improving to 6-0 at home in singles play during her career at Northern Arizona, Markova earned a straight-set victory against Grand Canyon's Natasha Puehse. Puehse, the two-time WAC Player of the Year, struggled to keep up with Markova as she earned her first career victory at No. 1. Rolling to a 6-0, 6-1 win, Markova earned the Lumberjacks third point of the match as the Lumberjacks won their 24th consecutive match at home.
Earlier in the match against Grand Canyon, Markova paired with freshman
Daryna Shoshyna for an easy 6-2 victory at No. 3. The pairing produced a pair of break point victories in the match's final three sets, earning their first doubles win of the season and improving Markova's home doubles record to 3-0 in her career. With the first victory of the day in hand, Northern Arizona went on to win the doubles point thanks to a victory on Court 2.
Markova finished the 2022 season on an 11-match win streak in singles and is 1-1 this season with a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Arizona State's Giulia Morlet, the nation's No. 69-raked singles player.
The honor is the second of Markova's career as she was named Big Sky Player of the Week last April, the fifth of five different Lumberjacks to earn the award across five consecutive weeks. Northern Arizona has won 21 player of the week awards from the Big Sky since head coach
Ewa Bogusz took over the team for the 2018-19 academic year.
Northern Arizona will head to Tucson this weekend for a trio of matches against teams that finished the 2022 season ranked among the Top 70 in the nation. Northern Arizona opens up the weekend against the Florida Atlantic Owls (2-3) on Friday morning before taking on the Fresno State Bulldogs (1-2) Friday night. The Lumberjacks will finish up the weekend against the hosting Arizona Wildcats (3-1) at 2 p.m. on Saturday. FAU finished 2022 ranked No. 66 in the ITA's Collegiate Tennis Rankings, with Fresno State finishing at No. 65 and Arizona at No. 47.
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