{"id":55416,"date":"2019-05-01T14:14:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T21:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=55416"},"modified":"2019-05-02T08:45:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T15:45:51","slug":"nau-womens-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/nau-womens-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"NAU women\u2019s, men’s tennis teams win Big Sky championship, earn NCAA bid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April 30, 2019
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northern Arizona University\u2019s women\u2019s and men’s tennis teams are headed to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Big Sky championship. For the women, it’s the second time in program history after a 4-0 victory against Idaho in the Big Sky Championship match\u2014one that made up for three years of losing in the championship to the same opponent.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men, whose NCAA appearance begins Friday in Los Angeles against the University of Southern California, are hoping to extend their win streak of 19 matches that began March 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s tennis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely proud of every one of the ladies, not only today, because they worked for this the entire season,\u201d head coach Ewa Bogusz<\/strong> said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t take days off, they came back from tough losses and worked even harder. Their willpower and work ethic are what got them the title.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior Chiara Tomasetti<\/strong> and Idaho\u2019s Marianna Petrei squared off in the headlining match. Petrei, three-time Big Sky Most Valuable Player, had a 47-0 career record against conference opponents; Tomasetti\u2019s only loss this season came at the hands of Petrei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With NAU leading the match 3-0, the Lumberjacks\u2019 captain delivered and Petrei\u2019s final shot of her career sailed long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew this was Chiara\u2019s last chance to beat her,\u201d Bogusz said. \u201cChiara is our team captain, and she deserves this win more than ever. Petrei was such a consistent player over her four years and that win just goes to show what Chiara has in her pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tomasetti\u2019s 6-1, 6-2 championship-clincher capped a dominating performance by the Lumberjacks at the Phoenix Tennis Center. NAU earned the doubles point and proceeded to pick up the necessary three singles victories in convincing fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophomore Madi Moore<\/strong> and freshman Emilie Haakansson<\/strong> put the Lumberjacks on the board first with their 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Laura Spataro and Maggie Chen. The two teams split the first two completed doubles matches with senior Hanneke Lodewijks<\/strong> and sophomore Ellie Millard<\/strong> blanking Anna Stefani and Marta Magalhaes, 6-0, at No. 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Millard made quick work, 6-1, 6-0, of Spataro at No. 3 singles to lift NAU to a 2-0 advantage. Haakansson followed by defeating Magalhaes, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 5 to put the Lumberjacks within a point of the title, which Tomasetti would secure at No. 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a tough season and didn\u2019t have the best start, but we won today in the most important match so I\u2019m super proud of the whole team,\u201d Tomasetti said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through a lot with Idaho\u2014for me the last two years and for some the last three years\u2014but winning this tournament is what we wanted and winning it against them is the cherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lodewijks was close to picking up a win at No. 2 as she led Maria Tavares, 6-3, 5-2, when Tomasetti clinched the match. Moore was ahead a set at No. 6, and freshman Adrianna Sosnowska<\/strong> was locked in a three-set match at No. 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone played their best tennis this tournament,\u201d Lodewijks said. \u201cEveryone fought really hard and for each other. After we lost to Sac State, we knew we needed to work even harder to turn our season around. I\u2019m very happy to end my career at NAU like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lumberjacks will head west to face their first round matchup against No.7 national seed UCLA on May 4 at noon in Los Angeles. The two teams will be joined by San Diego and LSU, winners meeting in the second round on May 5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Men’s tennis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Although NAU is the lowest seed of the four schools (USC, San Diego and Minnesota) in its bracket, it is entering the tournament on a hot streak.  This program record started on March 2, against conference foe Southern Utah.  Overall, the Lumberjacks are 22-6 on the season and went a perfect 10-0 in the Big Sky to win the regular season Championship. In the Big Sky tournament, the ‘Jacks were won their semifinal match against Idaho State and their final match against Portland State 4-0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In singles, the name to remember for the Lumberjacks, is their No. 1 player Tim Handel.  He’s gone 21-1 on the season. Following the senior in wins on the team is freshman Facundo Tumosa with 18, while fellow senior Ruben Montano has 17 on the season.  Tumosa plays at the No. 3 position for the team, while Montano plays at the No. 5 position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In doubles, the ‘Jacks have had a strong season up to this point as the team has a .73 winning percentage in doubles on the season.  NAU’s top duo is Tom Fisher and Chris Steele, who have 17 wins on the season. The tandem has played a majority of its matches at the No. 3 position.  Trailing the No. 3 doubles team in wins are the No. 1 pair and No. 3 pair, with 16 wins each.  The No. 1 tandem is made up of Handel and Montano, and the No. 3 tandem is made up of Lucas Taylor and Tumosa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USC will be entering the matchup as the host school of the region, as the Trojans went 20-7 on the season.  Similar to Northern Arizona, Southern Cal. will be entering the NCAA Tournament on a hot streak as the team has won its last seven matches, including the PAC-12 Championship over the University of California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Men's<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 30, 2019 Northern Arizona University\u2019s women\u2019s and men’s tennis teams are headed to the NCAA Tournament after winning the Big Sky championship. For the women, it’s the second time in program history after a 4-0 victory against Idaho in the Big Sky Championship match\u2014one that made up for three years of losing in the…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}