Griz head east for duals against Michigan State and Xavier

The Montana women's tennis team made an early statement last week with an attention-grabbing 5-2 win over the favored Grand Canyon Antelopes for its first win of the season. The same GCU team that topped Montana State 5-2 a day later on a neutral court in Missoula.

For the Griz (1-3), it was a big step in the right direction as head coach Steve Ascher's program seeks to return to the top of the Big Sky table, and an indicator this scheduling strategy of playing up is starting to pay dividends.

"You put in the work, and you get rewarded, so I think it's created a little spark for the team," says Ascher. "It hasn't changed anything, but you can tell they're excited to get a win against a quality team."

Montana will get another chance to play David to some of the tennis world's Goliaths this weekend when the Griz head to East Lansing, Michigan, to take on the Michigan State Spartans (3-3) and the Xavier Musketeers (2-3) in a pair of nonconference duals.

After a tighter-than-expected 1-6 loss to Minnesota two weeks ago, UM will get another crack at a Big Ten opponent on Saturday against the Spartans at 1 p.m. (MT) at the MSU Tennis Center. The Griz then cap the weekend trip to the Midwest against Xavier on Sunday at 2 p.m. (MT).

With a young team built predominantly of underclassmen, the Griz are still trying to find their identity, but take the court this weekend with newfound confidence after a solid start to the season.

"I think everyone is invested in the process. We had chances to win the doubles point against Minnesota, so I'm excited for us to continue to gain experience, we know we're right there, and we can play with these teams," Ascher added.

Leading the Griz is junior first-team All-Big Sky pick Julia Ronney who is out to a 2-1 start to the nonconference season in singles, tied for the most wins in the league so far this year on court one.

Providing more vindication of the Grizzlies' trajectory was a Big Sky Player of the Week performance by sophomore Lauren Dunlap, who took home the first weekly award of her career on Wednesday.

To get it, she picked up a pair of wins to help the Griz upset GCU. Dunlap and her partner Alex Walker took care of business on court three with a 6-2 win over GCUs Prudhomme/Infantano pair to help the Griz clinch the opening point. She then followed that up with a dominant second set performance on court four to beat Jana Weiss 6-4, 6-0, to earn a point that put UM up 3-0 over the visitors.

"It was awesome. It's special because you're coming off a quality win as a team, and she earned both a doubles and singles win. It's cool to see it too, because she's put in the work, and to have some success early in the spring is a real boost for her," says Ascher.

"She mixed up the tempos a ton and attacked a lot. Tactically, she made about three adjustments in the match and just kept plugging away on those adjustments. It was cool to see."

Picking up wins in East Lansing will be no easy task, however.

The match against Michigan State represents the return half of a home-and-home pairing with the Spartans. MSU came to Missoula in January of 2019 and went away with a 7-0 whitewash of the Griz, where only one match went to a third set.

Xavier also brings a winning pedigree to this weekend's match, having entered last year's Big East Championship Tournament as the No. 1 seed only to lose in the final, snapping a 20-match win streak.

Following the trip to Michigan, the Griz will return to the road to face the University of Denver on Valentine's Day.

Griz head east for duals against Michigan State and Xavier

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Players Mentioned

Lauren Dunlap

Julia Ronney

Alex Walker

University of Montana Athletics