Griz beat Eagles, end postseason drought

Sunday, April 9

Missoula, Mont.

9:30 AM

Montana

Eastern Washington

4/9/2023 4:58:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score PDF Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

After his team beat Eastern Washington to punch its ticket to the Big Sky tournament in Phoenix, Montana women's tennis head coach Steve Ascher said it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his back.

A weight seven years in the making.

Facing a win-or-go-home scenario in the regular season finale with the emotions of senior day added to the mix, the Griz grounded the Eagles 4-3 at the Peak Racquet Club on Easter Sunday to secure a place in the conference championship tourney for the first time since 2015.

With its sixth doubles win in eight matches (this time in a tiebreaker) on top of three singles wins, Montana sealed the thrilling victory on the last match of the day when Maria Goheen clinched in straight sets on court five.

"I'm just so excited for the players getting that opportunity to go down there, and then winning with the stakes so high was special," said Ascher.

"The stakes were high, and they really showed up and competed. That, and it being senior day, made it pretty special to be able to win in a big moment like that."

After being celebrated before the match on her senior day, Lauren Dunlap was one of the stars of the show for Montana, clinching the doubles point with her partner Rosie Sterk in a tiebreaker and cruising to a straight-set win in singles.

She'll now make the first appearance in the conference championship of her career after a senior season where she and Sterk have been one of the top doubles pairs in the region with 13 wins.

"It feels amazing. This was our goal for the past few years, and we finally got it. It was such a good day, and I'm so excited," said Dunlap.

"This team is amazing, and I feel like we earned it today."

Montana improves to 6-12 overall and went 3-1 at home on the year. At 3-5 in conference play, the Griz have secured one of the top six seeds at the league championship April 27-29 in Arizona, holding a head-to-head advantage over the bottom three teams.

Eastern Washington, which beat Montana State on Friday after the return of several veteran players from injury, falls to 3-11 and 1-5 this season.

Gallery: (4-9-2023) WTEN:: vs Eastern Washington (4.9.23)

The Grizzlies started strong in doubles, taking early leads on all three courts. But the Eagles soon adjusted and shifted the momentum inside the Peak to take a 6-4 win on court two and regain the lead on courts one and three.

Olvia Oosterbaan and Hailey Murphy would then rebound, breaking EWU to build a 6-5 lead and holding serve to win 7-5 on court three over EWU's Mann/Nizetic pair to tie the doubles round at one win each.

Meanwhile, in the decider on court one, Dunlap and Sterk held their serve to tie the match at five-all and held it again to tie the set at six and send it to a tiebreaker.

The pair then went up 4-2 in the breaker, followed by an ace from Sterk to put the momentum firmly with the Griz, who went on to win the point over EWU's Mathews/Foshee pair 7-6 (4).

The senior/sophomore pair improve their record on the season to 13-5 together, putting them in contention for all-conference and all-region honors.

"We just kept saying to each other that we're having fun because there was so much pressure on at that point, and we knew it," said Dunlap.

"After every point, I said, this is fine, we're having fun, and that was probably one of our best doubles tiebreakers ever. So, I think just having fun and playing hard got us that one."

The Griz then rode the wave of momentum into two quick singles wins in straight-sets to put them up 3-0 in the team score.

Olivia Oosterbaan took her frustrations out on Jennifer Kida after entering the day on a five-match losing streak. The senior, who plans on returning for another year in 2024, cruised to a first-set win and dominated her Eagle opponent in a 6-2, 6-2 win for UM's first singles point of the day.

"Olivia has struggled a little bit this semester, and for her to come out and just play so intelligent and hard was good to see," said Ascher. "She did some things in practice this week to kind of set that stage, so that was awesome."

Meanwhile, Dunlap was also riding the emotion of senior day and momentum from doubles on court four, beating Leandra Nizetic 6-2, 6-1 to put UM up 3-0.

Montana appeared to be in control, but the Eagles then raced back to make it a tight match.

UM sophomore Grace Haugen won her second set on court one but couldn't hang on for the win, falling to Scout Mathews 3-6, 6-1, 1-6 for EWU's first point.

Freshman Hailey Murphy was almost as close as it gets to picking off a win against Renata Gabuzyan, eventually falling 5-7, 5-7 in a marathon match that cut the Grizzly lead 3-2.

Sterk couldn't capture the momentum of doubles after sitting and watching the top four courts play out, falling to Kenzington Mann 4-6, 3-6 on court six to tie the match at three, putting the pressure squarely on court five and Maria Goheen.

With all eyes on her, she rose to the occasion.

Goheen, another UM senior who plans on returning next year, made quick work of Isabella Foshee on court five.

After giving up just one game in the first set, she fended off some long rallies to beat Foshee 6-3 in the second set to clinch the win at 4-3 for Montana, sending them to Phoenix for the conference tourney.

"It was really cool to have Maria coming in clutch like that," said Dunlap.

"We all had so much faith in her. At the end of the day, if it comes down to Maria and grinding, we have our bets on her."

The Griz beat the Eagles and punch their ticket to the Big Sky Conference tournament!! #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/09gqQNHlYy
— Montana Griz Women's Tennis (@MontanaGrizWTEN) April 9, 2023