Griz on the road for pair of matches this weekend

What was initially set to be a three-match trip has been trimmed to two as the Montana women's tennis team returns to action this weekend on the Palouse.

The Grizzlies (0-1) first travel to Lewiston, Idaho, to face Lewis-Clark state on Friday, Jan. 29, before capping the trip at Washington State in Pullman.

Montana was then scheduled to face Eastern Washington in Cheney in a nonconference matchup Sunday, but that match has been canceled due to COVID-19 protocol challenges within the EWU program.

Now with four of its first seven matches canceled so far this season, the Grizzlies haven't had much luck getting rolling.

But despite the challenges, Montana enters the weekend with a chance to meet its preseason goals with a tune-up against the D-III Warriors. UM will then follow that up with one of the tallest tasks they'll face all season, with the Cougars paced by the No. 55-ranked Michaela Bayerlova.

"It's been stressful because things change every day. But on this trip, we're just trying to stay in the moment, extract as much as we can, compete hard, try to perform at our highest level, and put everything else in the periphery," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"We're really just thinking about our process, being in the moment and getting after it. I think we're playing well. We just need to play more matches."

THE SLATE: Montana takes on Lewis-Clark State (0-0) in Lewiston on Friday at 2:30 p.m. (MT) at the LC-State Tennis Center. It will be the 2021 season opener for the Warriors and the first meeting between the teams since 2018, where the Griz left Idaho with a 7-0 win. LC-State will not have live coverage of the match.

On Saturday, the Griz travel north to Pullman to take on the Cougars (0-2) on the Simmelink Courts at the Hollingbery Fieldhouse. First serves go up at 11:30 a.m. (MT). Montana last played WSU in 2019, with the Cougars coming to Missoula for a pair of matches and going away with 7-0 wins in both.

Washington State will provide a live video stream of the action from Pullman, with links available at GoGriz.com.

A LOOK AT THE GRIZ: With only one match under their belts, the Montana netters enter the weekend seeking their first win in almost exactly one year. The Griz picked up their last victory on February 1, 2020, in an upset over Grand Canyon at home, nearly a month before the season would be canceled due to the pandemic.

The Griz are led by 2019 All-Big Sky pick Julia Ronney, the only Grizzly to pick up a set win against Gonzaga last week. Ronney was one of the few student-athletes at Montana to see any action in the fall season, competing as an individual at the ITA's UTR tournament in Salt Lake and coming away with a championship.

A LOOK AT LC-STATE: The Warriors return the bulk of the 2020 starting lineup, with the top two singles players and top doubles combination in Begona Andres and Laura Diaz returning. Friday's match will serve as the Warriors' season-opener.

A LOOK AT WSU: One of the top teams in the Western US in recent years, the Cougars are looking to pick up where they left off in 2020 prior to the season being canceled when they jumped out to an 11-3 record with a 2-0 start to Pac-12 play. Bayerlova leads the Cougs on the No. 1 court, where she opened the season with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Texas A&M's No. 64-ranked Tatiana Makarova last week.

Washington State is 0-2 as a team on the season, however, falling to the Aggies 4-1 in the opening match of the ITA Kickoff in Los Angles last week, and following that up with a 4-1 loss to No. 19 California the next day.

SCHEDULE NOTE: Utah State has canceled its upcoming trip to Montana to face the Grizzlies and the University of Idaho in Missoula. With the common opponent out of the mix, the Griz and Vandals also decided to cancel the nonconference match and now turn their focus to the Big Sky Conference match between the two scheduled for April 16.

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Players Mentioned

Julia Ronney

University of Montana Athletics