Montana makes a comeback to win 4-3 over Seattle

Sunday, January 23

Salt Lake City, Utah

9 AM

Montana

Seattle

1/23/2022 1:36:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

The Montana women's tennis team earned its first win of the season after defeating Seattle 4-3 Sunday morning in Salt Lake City. The Griz walk away 1-1 on the weekend after two tough non-conference matches.

Despite being short on numbers, the Griz had one mission going into Sunday's match: post results. Although it may have caused the grizzlies to dig deep, they accomplished their goal and made the comeback thanks to a great team effort.

"It was a huge effort to battle back after being down a player and down sets in three of the five matches," said head coach Steve Ascher. "The team showed a lot of heart to pull out a good road win."

Montana jumped on Seattle (0-2) early on in doubles with Grizzlies Lauren Dunlap and Grace Haugen defeating Redhawks duo Quintana/Fehr 6-1.

From there, Seattle rallied back after UM's Olivia Oosterbaan and Ivayla Mitkova fell to SU's Dimova/Kravela 4-6. Montana had to forfeit in the third doubles match, allowing Seattle to clinch the doubles point to put them up 1-0.

Though the Redhawks were seen to have the momentum going into singles - being up 2-0 due to another point by forfeit - senior Griz Alex Walker made quick work of opponent Jillian Rasmussen on court five, winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.

The motivation from there soared, which allowed for UM's Mitkova to win in straight sets over Hannah Grossman (7-5, 6-0). With the match being knotted up at two, the Griz knew they could pull through.

In position three, Montana's Dunlap dug deep to come from behind and beat Seattle's Jade Quintana in three sets, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.

On court two, a tough battle was fought between junior Griz Oosterbaan and Liliya Dimova. Oosterbaan pushed Dimova to her limits, bringing her to three sets and an overtime win. Despite the loss (3-6, 6-1, 6-7 (3)), Oosterbaan showed she could compete until the end.

The winner of the match was still yet to be determined as UM freshman Haugen was battling it out in three sets in position one with SU's Mireia Fehr. Haugen came from behind to clinch the win for the Griz posting results of 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

"It was great to get involved in a super tight match that could have gone to either team this early in the season," added Ascher.

Montana will be back in action Friday, Jan. 28 and Saturday, Jan. 29 for a pair of non-conference road matches against WSU and LC State. UM's match versus WSU is scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. in Pullman and the LC State match will take place in Lewiston, starting at 11 a.m.