Griz host Vandals in key Sunday dual

The Montana women's tennis team returns to action on Sunday, and for just the second time this season the Griz get to play on their home courts at the Peak Racquet Club.

Their first home match of the year turned out pretty good, with the Griz rolling over rival Montana State 6-1 for a Brawl of the Wild point.

Montana will look for a repeat performance when another long-time rival comes to town when the Griz take on the traditional conference powerhouse Idaho Vandals.

The match gets underway at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Admission to the Peak is free of charge and open to the public. Links to live scoring are available at GoGriz.com.

The Grizzlies (4-10, 1-3 BSC) host a young Vandal squad (3-10, 1-3 BSC) for a dual that, on paper, looks as evenly matched as it has in years, with UM looking to for its first win in the series since 2014.

And with the regular season winding down, the stakes couldn't be higher.

With just the top six teams on the conference table advancing to the championship tourney in Phoenix, Montana is poised to make that return for the first time since 2015.

In fact, the league's coaches predicted it, with the Griz picked fifth in the preseason poll. The Vandals, meanwhile, were picked in a tie for seventh with Montana State. Idaho comes to Missoula off a grueling five-and-a-half-hour loss to the Bobcats on Friday in Bozeman.

But a glance at the current conference standings sees Montana sitting seventh after a brutal road stretch to open conference play. The Vandals? They sit one place ahead of the Griz in that coveted sixth position.

All this is to say, a home win for Montana would go a long way toward seeing the Griz through to the postseason and snapping the seven-year tournament drought.

With UM sitting at 1-3 in conference play, the opportunity is still very much there to finish the season strong with three of the last four matches of the regular season coming at home.

The all-important doubles round has been Montana's strong suit of late as well, having won six of the last eight opening points. If the Griz can replicate that against the Vandals, head coach Steve Ascher thinks they have the right ingredients for a team win.

"Ever since Sac State, we've been pulling out the close points and closing out sets really well. Those two pieces have been really important, and now we've got confidence after putting together so many wins," said Ascher.

"I think we just need to keep doing what we're doing. We need to stay on top of the things we can control, compete for every moment, and just be locked into the in."

GRIZ TRACKS: At 10-4 as a doubles pair, Lauren Dunlap and Rosie Sterk have the most wins in the Big Sky Conference and are a big reason the Griz have won six of their last eight opening points.

The freshman/senior pair of Hailey Murphy and Olivia Oosterbaan has also been productive, sitting at 4-0 together and riding a four-match win streak into this weekend's match against Idaho.

Murphy is one of four Grizzlies that has passed the five-win threshold this season in singles. Senior Maria Goheen has the most overall singles wins with six, while Dunlap, Murphy, and Sterk are all close behind with five each.

UP NEXT: Montana returns to the road for the final time in the regular season with perhaps its stiffest challenge yet, heading to altitude in Flagstaff and trying to upset the No. 63 nationally ranked NAU Lumberjacks on March 31.

The Griz then cap the regular season with two matches at home, hosting Portland State on April 7 and Eastern Washington on April 9, with an eye toward the Big Sky championship April 27-29.

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Players Mentioned

Lauren Dunlap

Maria Goheen

Hailey Murphy

Olivia Oosterbaan

Rosie Sterk

University of Montana Athletics