Griz make strides in loss to Colorado

Sunday, February 3

Minneapolis, Minn.

9 AM

Montana

Colorado

2/3/2019 2:04:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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By: Montana Sports Information

Lidia Dukic and Julia Ronney picked up the first individual wins of the season for the Montana women's tennis team on Sunday in a 2-5 loss to the Colorado Buffaloes at Minnesota's Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis.

In the midst of the most difficult nonconference schedule in program history, the Grizzlies (0-5) showed improvement on the second day of the Courtside Classic against the Pac-12's Buffs (3-2), with both Ronney and Dukic winning first-set tiebreakers and riding that momentum to victory.

"We played with a lot more intensity and made a lot of good choices today," said head coach Steve Ascher. "Julia has been playing great, so it was awesome for her to get a win, and Lidia brought up her game today too. It was great to see."

Montana finishes the weekend trip to the Midwest with a 0-2 record, having fallen to the host Minnesota Gophers 0-7 on Saturday. Despite the losses, Ascher comes away from the tourney with plenty of positives.

"It was a solid trip. We're really challenging ourselves with this schedule, and I feel like we're making improvements. We've got a week off to go back and learn from this, and we'll continue to get better," said Ascher.

Montana fell down early in the match against CU, dropping the doubles point with 2-6 losses on both court two and three. The Buffs then sealed the match with singles wins on courts three, two and four to clinch the match at 4-0.

But Montana was not done fighting.

Ronney, a sophomore playing her second season on court one for the Griz, was the first Grizzly to pick up a win, grinding out a 7-6 (7-3) first-set tiebreaker win over CU's Annabelle Andrinopoulos, then dominating the second set 6-3 to win the point for UM.

On court five, Dukic, one of just two seniors on the 2019 Griz squad, also picked up a first-set tiebreaker, with a marathon 7-6 (8-6) win, before taking the final point for UM with a 6-3 win in the second over CU's Tallulah Farrow.

Montana's challenging nonconference schedule continues on Feb. 15 and 16 when the Griz travel to Oregon to get three more league tune-ups against San Diego, Oregon, and the University of Portland. UM then opens the Big Sky season at Portland State a day later on Feb. 17.