PORTLAND, Ore. (March 3, 2023) – The Lumberjacks split the weekend on the road, falling to Portland 5-2, before turning around and finding a 5-2 victory against Big Sky opponent Portland State.
PORTLAND
In its first match since achieving its highest ITA National Ranking of No. 52 in the country, Northern Arizona Women's Tennis dropped its match against the Portland Pilots, 5-2.
The win for Portland marks its sixth consecutive victory and its first win over a ranked opponent since 2015.
The Pilots set the tone during doubles play by taking quick victories on Courts 1 and 2 respectively. Sophomore Sally Pethybridge and junior Iva Zelic defeated senior Mimi Bland and junior Ana Karen Guadiana Campos, 6-2 on Court 1.
Portland sophomore Aleksandra Dimitrijevic and junior Rimona Rouf secured the doubles point over freshman Patrycja Niewiadomska and sophomore Laura Duhl, 6-3, leaving the match on Court 3 unfinished in the middle of a 5-5 set.
Much like in NAU's comeback win against then-No. 53 Colorado State last week, the higher courts were the first ones to finish. Guadiana Campos and Pethybridge continued their battle from doubles into singles with Pethybridge matching her performance to take a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Zelic brought Portland to within one point of winning the match with a win on Court 1 against junior Sofia Markova, 6-4, 6-3.
Niewiadomska extended her winning streak to a best of four wins with a sweep over Rouf to get revenge for their doubles match, winning 6-4, 6-3 on Court 3.
Portland freshman Alaia Rubio Perez claimed victory for the Pilots after Duhl forced an extended second set. Perez avoided a third set, winning 6-2, 7-5.
Junior Ava Neyestani forced the only three-set match of the day against freshman Meagan Pearson. Following a 6-2 loss in the first set, Neyestani rallied to take Set 2, 6-1. Pearson extended Portland's win with a 6-3 win in the final set.
NAU closed the gap to end the match with a sweep on Court 5 with freshman Daryna Shoshyna holding off Dimitrijevic in a second-set tiebreaker. Shoshyna won the first set 6-4 and took a 7-3 win in the tiebreaker in Set 2.
The Lumberjacks (5-4, 1-0 Big Sky) will stay in Oregon to continue its four-match road trip against Portland State (5-6, 1-0 Big Sky) for NAU's second conference match of the season tomorrow at 11 a.m. MST in Beaverton. The match will be the third of Portland State's six-match homestead. The Vikings earned their one conference in their last match against Idaho State, 5-2, on Feb. 25.
PORTLAND STATE
Northern Arizona Women's Tennis avenged its 5-2 loss to the Portland Pilots on Friday with a 5-2 win of its own against Portland State the following day. The No. 52-ranked Lumberjacks remain undefeated in conference play and earn its first Big Sky road win of the season.
The Lumberjacks utilized tiebreaking set wins on three singles courts to secure a comeback win after dropping the doubles point. Freshman Patrycja Niewiadomska and sophomore Laura Duhl got the doubles win on Court 2 over redshirt seniors Nell Arendt and Emily Rees, 6-1.
The Vikings took care of business on Courts 1 and 3 to take the lead heading into singles.
Northern Arizona came out on the upper hand in a series of singles matches that went down to the wire. Every court except for the top two went to a third set. Four of the six courts also had games decided on a tiebreaker, which Northern Arizona won three of.
Junior Sophia Markova got the sweep on Court 1 against graduate student Masha Ponomareva, setting the tone with a tiebreaking win in the first set. Markova took the win 7-6, 6-4.
Freshman Patrycja Niewiadomska got the job done on Court 3 despite dropping the first set in a tiebreaker. She rallied back to defeat freshman Elizabeth Strongina in three sets, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4. The victory give Niewiadomska five singles wins in a row to lead the Lumberjacks
Freshman Daryna Shoshyna continued to show resilience in close matches as she did in her win against Portland the day before. Shoshyna took home a final-set tiebreaker after dropping the first set with sophomore Nika Beukers on Court 4. Shoshyna held off Beukers to extend her personal winning streak in singles to three, winning 5-7, 7-5, 7-6.
Junior Ava Neyestani's match with Arendt on Court 5 went very similarly to Shoshyna's win. Each player won nine games in the first two sets. Neyestani prevented an Arendt comeback with a tiebreaking Set 3 win to take the match 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.
In a rematch from last year's meeting between the Lumberjacks and Vikings, sophomore Laura Duhl got the better of junior Makoto Ohara on Court, 7-6, 4-6, 6-2, after dropping the Court 5 match in Flagstaff in 2022.
Northern Arizona's win over Portland State marks its first on its four-match road trip. The Lumberjacks (6-4, 2-0 Big Sky) have two more matches before returning to Flagstaff, both against conference opponents. NAU will head to Lewiston, Idaho to take on the Idaho Vandals (2-7, 1-1 Big Sky) in hopes to extend its series winning streak to four matches on Friday, March 10 at 10 a.m. The Lumberjacks will then complete their road trip the following day against Eastern Washington (2-6, 0-1 Big Sky) at the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse in Cheney at 10 a.m.
For updated scores and coverage of the NAU women's tennis team during the spring season, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
