Griz head to Arizona for slate of four matches

The Montana women's tennis team opens Big Sky Conference play this weekend, but its already demanding schedule won't get any easier as the Griz head south for a four-match swing through the Grand Canyon State.

The Grizzlies (1-6) will look to recapture the same magic they found last time they played a team from Arizona when UM beat the favored Grand Canyon Antelopes 5-2 in Missoula at the start of the month.

That magic might come in handy as well, with the weekend slate opening at altitude in Flagstaff against the defending Big Sky Champion and preseason favorite Northern Arizona Lumberjacks on Thursday at 2 p.m.

The Griz will remain at 7,000 feet on Friday (10 a.m.) for a nonconference match against the New Mexico Lobos (themselves a high-altitude team, hailing from Albuquerque at just over a mile high), who are one of the favorites to win the Mountain West this season.

Montana then drops down to the desert for a pair of matches in Tucson on Saturday with the doubleheader starting against the San Francisco Dons (9 a.m.) out of the always-strong West Coast Conference, and finishing at 3 p.m. against the Pac-12's Arizona Wildcats.

COVERAGE: Links to live scoring for the NAU and Arizona matches can be found at GoGriz.com. Arizona will also have live streaming of the action against the Wildcats, with links to watch also available at GoGriz.com.

GRIZ TRACKS: Montana enters the weekend slate coming off a bye week, with the team's last action on Feb. 14 at Denver, who has since rocketed to No. 34 in the nation after an upset over South Carolina.

While the Pioneers handed the Griz a 7-0 team loss, Montana was a tiebreaker away from claiming the doubles point thanks to a 6-1 win from Julia Ronney and Olivia Oosterbaan on court one – their second win of the season as a pair. The win came over DU's Taylor Melville and Hada Chang – a quality win with Melville coming in ranked as the No. 103 singles player in the nation this week.

Montana will be tasked with upsetting another nationally ranked player when it opens conference play, with the Lumberjacks entering the match led by the nation's No. 44-ranked and two-time Big Sky Player of the Week Chiara Tomasetti.

With the experience of playing at altitude in Denver already under their belts, head coach Steve Ascher thinks the Grizzlies are up for the challenge.

"You're going into their home, and you get an opportunity," said Ascher. "We want to go in there and get after them. We just need that competitive mindset."

The Lumberjacks (2-4, 1-0 BSC) are already proving to be one of the better teams in the west, with wins over Utah State and Portland State, and narrow, 3-4 losses to Arizona, BYU, and Oregon.

Similarly, the Lobos enter Friday's match at 2-4 in the young season with wins over UTEP, and CSUN ticked off, and narrow losses to SMU and New Mexico State to build off for the team that finished second in the Mountain West standings a year ago.

For Ascher's squad, it's just another in a long list of challenging opponents he's lined up for his young team to face, and so far, he likes the progress they've made.

It's a continuation of learning how to compete at the highest level," said the 11th-year coach. "The team's been energized and is playing well. Now we need to get that translating over to the matches from practice, and I think we're going to be in good shape."

Following UM's two-day stay in Flagstaff, the Griz drop out of the mountains for a pair of matches at Arizona's Robson Tennis Center, giving UM its first taste of outdoor tennis for the season.

San Francisco (2-2) is led by the No. 84-ranked Emily Maxfield and already has an easy 6-1 win over the Big Sky's Sacramento State Hornets to go along with a 4-1 win over San Jose State.

Montana will head back into the blazing Arizona sunshine on Saturday afternoon to face the formidable Wildcats in UM's third-to-last nonconference match of the season.

With the Big Sky tournament sent to return to Arizona at the Phoenix Tennis Center again in 2020, Ascher is taking the long view on preparing his team in Tucson.

"It's supposed to be 80 degrees, so to get used to some heat and to play outside this early in the season is going to be good for us," Ascher said.

NEXT UP: Montana returns home for the first time in over a month on March 6 and 8 with a nonconference tune-up against the Portland Pilots before the all-important Brawl of the Wild match against Montana State.

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Players Mentioned

Olivia Oosterbaan

Julia Ronney

University of Montana Athletics