Griz open season with three match road swing

With classes for the spring semester at the University of Montana still to begin next week, the Grizzly women's tennis team will get an early jump on the 2023 dual season with three road matches this weekend.

Montana will challenge itself right out of the gates, opening at Washington State on Friday, Jan. 13, before heading north to Spokane to face Gonzaga on Saturday. The Griz then cap the weekend with a neutral site dual against Seattle University on Sunday morning at GU's Stevens Tennis Center.

UM's first serves of the season go up at 11 AM (MT) at Washington State's Simmelink Tennis Courts. WSU will provide live streaming and live scoring of the match, with links available at GoGriz.com.

The Griz then face the Zags the following morning at 10 AM (MT) on Jan. 14, and face Seattle on Jan. 15 at 10 AM (MT) as well. Links to live video of both matches can also be found at GoGriz.com.

With only a handful of practices under their belt following the holiday break, Montana looks to pick up where it left off during the fall tournament schedule, with undefeated performances at the EWU Invite highlighting the season.

"I'm excited. I think the team has worked hard over the break, there's some nice chemistry going on, and we've been putting in the preparation. So, I think we're in a great spot," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"It's early, but I think it's awesome to start getting matches and putting the pressure on right away. These will be good tests, and I think they should push us from the get-go."

SCOUTING THE FIELD: Washington State leads the all-time series with Montana 40-4 including a 5-2 win over the Griz in Pullman last season. Lauren Dunlap and Rosie Sterk each picked up wins for UM, with Dunlap taking a three-set marathon win over Elyse Tse. Tse looks to be a star for the Cougars this season, having just captured her first professional ITF main draw victory late in December when she posted a 6-3, 6-1 win in the first round of the 25k Tauranga event in New Zealand.

Gonzaga also opens its season this week against Montana in the Stevens Center. The Zags were picked to finish eighth in the competitive WCC title race with 27 points in the voting. GU went 8-14 a year ago with a 4-0 win over Montana. GU returns seven players from last year, including former All-Big Sky standout at NAU Adrianna Sosnowska.

Montana's first win of the 2022 dual season came against Seattle on a neutral court in Salt Lake City, when the Griz beat the Redhawks 4-3, with wins from Grace Haugen, Lauren Dunlap, Ivayla Mitkova, and Alex Walker.

GRIZ TRACKS

• Montana was picked fifth in the Big Sky preseason poll earlier in the week, with the top six teams in the league advancing to the conference championship tournament. Montana has not made the tournament since 2015.

• The Griz return seven players from last year's squad that went 7-13 overall but just 2-6 in league play.

• Sophomore Grace Haugen was Montana's breakout star in 2022, earning first-team all-conference honors after going 3-2 on court one as a freshman.

• Graduate student Lauren Dunlap also returns for one more season for the Griz after picking up the most singles wins for UM last season with 15 and the most doubles wins with 10.

• Senior Maria Goheen is a two-time All-Big Sky honoree who picked up the most singles wins in league play last season at 5-3 in conference play.

NEXT UP: Montana returns to the training courts for two weeks before another stern nonconference test, traveling to Salt Lake to take on Utah and Cincinnati in a pair of neutral site duals on Feb. 4 and 5, respectively.

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Players Mentioned

Lauren Dunlap

Maria Goheen

Grace Haugen

Ivayla Mitkova

Rosie Sterk

Alex Walker

University of Montana Athletics