Griz women open 2022 season in Salt Lake City

The Montana women's tennis team opens its 2022 duals season in Salt Lake City this weekend for a pair of non-conference matches. The team will be facing Utah and Seattle to kick off the year.

The Griz will start the weekend taking on the Utes on Saturday at 10 a.m. and will face the Redhawks at 9 a.m. Sunday. Both matches will be held at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center.

There will be live stats and a live stream available for Saturday's match against Utah. Fans may access those links above or find them on gogriz.com. For Sunday's match against Seattle, there will be no live stats or live stream available.

"We are excited to get going and play some good teams on the road. Utah is always strong and it's always a blast playing against a PAC-12 team," said head coach Steve Ascher. "We haven't played Seattle U in quite a while. They've had changes in their coaching staff and team, so it will be a great experience competing against a solid Northwest team."

UM brings experience to the table this weekend with five upperclassmen, making up more than half of the team. Senior Lauren Dunlap comes off a 6-4 fall season, and looks to improve her record for her last season with the Griz.

Being picked fifth in the preseason coaches poll, the Grizzlies will use the experience they have to compete in the Big Sky and make an appearance at the Big Sky tournament.

The Griz are winless against the Utes in recent history, going 0-6 dating back to 2005.

Utah is coming off two sweeps over Dixie State, to improve its 2022 record to 2-0. In the fall, the Utes played in six different tournaments, preparing them for the spring season. Carrying nine athletes on its roster, eight of those nine are upperclassmen, giving the Utes plenty of experience on the court.

With recent history dating back to 2010, Montana posts a 5-0 record over Seattle with the last meeting ending in a 5-2 victory in 2018.

The Redhawks come into the weekend with a 0-0 record after their match versus Washington State got postponed. Seattle played two tournaments in the fall which included the WSU Cougar Classic and the ITA NW Regional Championship.

Montana will return to the courts Jan. 28 and 29 for a pair of road matches in Pullman and Lewiston.

A GLIMPSE AT THE GRIZ

Montana returns upperclassmen Lauren Dunlap, Claudia Reguant, Alex Walker, Maria Goheen and Olivia Oosterbaan for the 2022 season
Grace Haugen, Aili Hietala and Rosie Sterk could see their first duals action as Grizzlies
Head coach Steve Ascher is in his 14th season coaching the Griz, holding a record of 120-170

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Players Mentioned

Lauren Dunlap

Maria Goheen

Grace Haugen

Aili Hietala

Olivia Oosterbaan

Claudia Reguant

Rosie Sterk

Alex Walker

University of Montana Athletics