Montana
Washington State
Grizzlies show fight vs. Cougars in Friday 6-1 loss
3/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 11, 2011
The University of Montana women's tennis team fell 6-1 to PAC 10 team Washington State Friday in Pullman, Wash. Dropping their second consecutive match to a ranked northwest opponent, the Grizzly loss featured many close matches not reflected in their ultimate team score.
In the march 6 meeting with No. 52 Boise State, the Grizzlies suffered a very one-sided loss. Less than a week later, vs. Washington State, ranked most recently Feb 14 at No. 74, The Grizzlies remained in the match, with strong play in opening doubles action as well as hotly contested matches played by Whitney Paluch, Ashley Mackey and Lauren Gibson.
The Cougars, fresh off six consecutive losses to PAC 10 competition--namely top-75 ranked programs, entered their home courts at Hollingbery Fieldhouse Friday with the expectation of an easy match vs. the unranked Grizzlies.
Immediately starting doubles play, the three UM duos proved that they had come to compete. At No. 3, Contance Alexander and Mackey began by immediately breaking the serve of their Cougar opponents. With Grizzly seniors Paluch and Rebecca Bran holding serve well into their match at No. 1, competiton close as well.
Just as WSU pulled ahead to 4-3 leads at Nos. 1 and 3, Grizzlies Heather Davidson and Gibson, who had trailed 0-4 early on, finished a 4-1 run to come within a single point of the Cougar No. 2 pair.
The home team finished out with impressive force, winning all three matches and the doubles point.
In singles play, the Grizzlies got on the board with first-set wins by Gibson and Paluch at Nos. 6 and 3 respectively, as well as an extremely close first set tiebreaker by Mackey.
The Grizzlies fell in straight sets at Nos. 1 and 2, with Davidson trailing in a tough match with WSU freshman Olga Musilovich, who recently lost a three-set tiebreaker to an opponent from N0. 2 Stanford in her No. 4 spot.
The Cougars would clinch the win with the Davidson loss, yet Paluch and Gibson soldiered on as Mackey narrowly fell 6-7 with a 10-12 tiebreaker in her first set.
Paluch would eventually fall at No. 3, losing in a dramatic 9-11 tiebreaker.
Gibson would go on to take her second win of the season, topping Jessica Gomez 6-1, 6-3.
Mackey's early energy would dwindle with the tenacious Andjela Kankaras holding on for 6-0 in the second set and the victory at No. 5.
Of note, UM freshman Maddy Murray demonstrated the expanse of the Grizzly team depth with an 8-1 win in her exhibition super-set vs. Cougar Erin Troedson.
UM coach Steve Ascher said, "The team played so much better than they did against Boise State. Our doubles was great across the board, with WSU just making shots at all of the right times. This match was an important step on our way to playing that conference match with Sacramento State in that we showed that we can compete, even if the final scores don't demonstrate how close many of the matches were."
Washington State fell to the Big Sky's No. 1 Hornets 4-3 Feb. 24, with the No. 6 Cougar athlete serving for the match clincher vs. the ITA's No. 29 team.
The Grizzlies will move on to play a neutral-site match with Seattle Saturday morning, and will then close off the weekend with a second event vs. hosts Lewis-Clark State College that same day. Live event updates will be available at gogriz.com.
Tennis Match Results
Montana vs Washington State
Mar 11, 2011 at Pullman, Wash
(Hollingbery Fieldhouse)
Washington State 6, Montana 1
Singles competition
1. VASILIEVA, Liudmila (WASU) def. Bran, Rebecca (UM) 6-0, 6-2
2. FOURNIER, Elisabeth (WASU) def. Alexander, Constance (UM) 6-0, 6-2
3. GOOGE, Ksenia (WASU) def. Paluch, Whitney (UM) 3-6, 6-2, 11-9
4. MUSILOVICH, Olga (WASU) def. Davidson, Heather (UM) 6-3, 6-2
5. KANKARAS, Andjela (WASU) def. Mackey, Ashley (UM) 7-6 (12-11), 6-0
6. Gibson, Lauren (UM) def. GOMEZ, Jessica (WASU) 6-1, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. VASILIEVA, Liudmila/GOOGE, Ksenia (WASU) def. BRAN, Rebecca/PALUCH, Whitney (UM) 8-5
2. KANKARAS, Andjela/MUSILOVICH, Olga (WASU) def. DAVIDSON, Heather/GIBSON,
Lauren (UM) 8-5
3. FOURNIER, Elisabeth/JANSEN, Lea (WASU) def. ALEXANDER, Constance/MACKEY, Ashley (UM) 8-3
Match Notes:
Montana 6-8 (3-0 BSC)
Washington State 9-7
