Montana
Northern Arizona
Women's tennis falls to second-place Lumberjacks 4-3
4/16/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
April 16, 2011
The University of Montana women's tennis team played Big Sky No. 2 Northern Arizona to a 4-3 loss Saturday at Missoula's Peak Racquet Club. The Grizzlies dropped to a 6-2 Big Sky record and third in league standings behind the 6-1 Lumberjack team and the 8-0 Hornets of Sacramento State.
Montana took the early doubles point with an 8-4 win by Heather Davidson and Lauren Gibson at No. 2 over Yumi Hasegawa and Malia Wahinepio and a 9-8 tie-breaker win at No. 3 by Amanda Bran and Constance Alexander. Bran and Alexander topped Aimee Oki and Nicole Perez 9-8(5) after trailing 3-6 mid-match.
In singles play, the Grizzlies battled with their Lumberjack opponents, surprisingly dropping matches at Nos. 1, 3 and 4 early on. Montana holds the strongest records of the season at Nos. 3-4.
In her match at No.2, senior Whitney Paluch topped `Jack Orsi Golvics 7-6(7), 6-4 for her 15th win of dual play. The last Grizzly to take 15 wins in a season was Liz Walker who graduated in 2009. Walker's mark was a decade-high tally for the Grizzly women.
Freshman Ashley Mackey took a three-set win in her No. 5 match which lasted 2 hours and 43 minutes. Mackey, who utilized her ability to run down any shot, won 6-7(5), 7-5, 10-8 over Nicole Perez for UM's third point of the day.
UM coach Steve Ascher said, "At this point we see a situation where we will be facing the same team in that 2-3 conference tournament match up. Our players were not their absolute best today, so we do have room for improvement there. The challenge will be to take what we learned about our opponents today and to assimilate that into our work over the next week to be the more prepared team when we meet again."
Northern Arizona still has yet to play Montana State. A loss in Bozeman Sunday would place the Lumberjacks at 6-2, but the Flagstaff squad would still hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Grizzlies in that situation.
Tennis Match Results
Northern Arizona vs Montana
Apr 16, 2011 at Missoula, Mont.
(Peak Racquet Club)
Northern Arizona 4, Montana 3
Singles competition
1. SUHAJDA, Edit (NAU) def. Bran, Rebecca (UM) 6-0, 6-0
2. Paluch, Whitney (UM) def. GOLOVICS, Orsi (NAU) 7-6 (9-7), 6-4
3. HASEGAWA, Yumi (NAU) def. Alexander, Constance (UM) 6-4, 6-0
4. WAHINEPIO, Malia (NAU) def. Davidson, Heather (UM) 6-4, 6-0
5. Mackey, Ashley (UM) def. PEREZ, Nicole (NAU) 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 10-8
6. OKI, Aimee (NAU) def. Gibson, Lauren (UM) 6-0, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. SUHAJDA, Edit/GOLOVICS, Orsi (NAU) def. PALUCH, Whitney/BRAN, Rebecca (UM) 8-2
2. DAVIDSON, Heather/GIBSON, Lauren (UM) def. HASEGAWA, Yumi/WAHINEPIO, Malia (NAU) 8-4
3. BRAN, Amanda/ALEXANDER, Constance (UM) def. PEREZ, Nicole/OKI, Aimee (NAU) 9-8 (7-5)
Match Notes:
Northern Arizona 11-9, 6-1 BSC
Montana 11-11, 6-2 BSC
Players Mentioned
