NAU SPORTS INFORMATION
Bouncing back from a close loss in San Francisco on Thursday, the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks captured their first Big Sky Conference win of the season Friday, beating the Sacramento State Hornets, 5-2.
Northern Arizona (3-7, 1-1 Big Sky) opened its stretch of seven consecutive conference games with a crucial victory. Voted to finish ninth in the Big Sky this season, the Hornets entered Friday’s match on a five-match losing streak. The Lumberjacks extended it to six, taking the opening point of the day with a pair of doubles victories before coming away with the first four singles points.
Gina Dittmann and Ava Neyestani improved to 3-0 this season as a pairing with a 6-0 victory on court three over Sacramento State’s Shauna Casey and Alexis Johnson. Mimi Bland and Annabel Davis were not too far behind in securing the doubles win at the No. 1 flight.
Northern Arizona came up with three dominant performances at the top and bottom of the lineup. Bland finished her day with a perfect record, beating Maddy Ferreros, 6-2, 6-1, for her second straight singles win, pushing her record at No. 2 to 3-1 this season.
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Dittmann and Neyestani each carried over their success from doubles into their singles matches, winning 6-3, 6-2 and 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 and 6, respectively.
Dittman’s win marked six straight in singles play this season and closed out a perfect 4-0 week between doubles and singles in California.
With the team victory already clinched, Sofia Markova extended her singles win streak to three straight matches and is now 4-2 this season at No. 3. She defeated Tsveti Yotova 6-0, 7-5 at court three.
Northern Arizona will return to Flagstaff for a pair of matches. It will host Idaho State Bengals (5-3, 1-0) on Wednesday. Northern Arizona then faces the Eastern Washington Eagles (3-6, 2-0) on Sunday as part of a doubleheader with the men’s tennis team.
Elle Kocourkova is a senior on the Lumberjacks golf squad.
MASON ELLIOTT, NAU Athletics
golf
Elle Kocourkova started her collegiate golf career at Northern Arizona University in 2018. Coming from the Czech Republic, Kocourkova was looking forward to new experiences and a change of scenery at Northern Arizona. Throughout the past four years, Kocourkova developed into a key part of the Lumberjacks squad.
Kocourkova’s career scoring average is 75.93 and she has six top-20 individual tournament finishes and two top-10 finishes throughout the past four years. She is a three-time Big Sky Conference honoree, with honorable mentions in 2019 and 2020, and landing on the third team in 2021.
Kocourkova feels that her mindset has grown since her freshman year.
“These four years gave me a lot. I can see the change through the priorities and goals I set for myself, and how I communicate with my coach and teammates,” said Kocourkova, who is currently second on the team this season in scoring average (75.53) as well as second in total birdies (37).
She owes her golf career to her parents, who sparked her interest in sports at a young age. Her father played golf when she was younger and encouraged her to try it. Quickly, she received her own clubs and found herself competing in tournaments and practicing alongside him.
“My dad is definitely my inspiration. He gave me a lot of his time and was there for every practice and game,” Kocourkova mentioned.
Coming to the United States in 2018, Kocourkova was looking forward to meeting new people and getting an education while doing what she loved. Being a part of a team made the transition into college easier for her. Kocourkova instantly connected with new friends as teammates and found a great mentor in head coach Brad Bedortha.
She is grateful for Bedortha and describes how she feels that they grew together through the years.
“He pushes his players to play at the highest level and he knows what we can do,” Kocourkova said. “It’s been great being with him throughout the years and having someone like him to go to for anything.”
On the course, her favorite memory was her hole-in-one at the Golfweek Red Sky Classic in September. In that tournament, she recorded her lowest career round of 4-under-par 68 and had her hole-in-one on the 17th hole — the first hole-in-one by a Lumberjacks golfer since 2017.
Kocourkova will graduate from Northern Arizona in the spring with a degree in hotel and restaurant management. Following graduation, she plans on going back to the Czech Republic to coach golf and continue her education by pursuing a master’s degree. She is excited to be reunited with her family but will cherish the friends and memories she’s made at Northern Arizona.
One thing Kocourkova will miss most is the van rides to and from Sedona with teammates Ashley Croft and Aleksandra Chekalina.
“Ashley, Aleks and I are very close. We have been together since freshman year and know everything about each other. It is always fun bringing up old memories between ourselves and Coach Bedortha,” she said.
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