Griz head west for pair of key conference duals

Griz head west for pair of key conference duals

The Montana women's tennis team returns to Big Sky Conference play in earnest this week with a big opportunity to pick up a pair of league wins that could already hold postseason implications.

The Griz, picked fifth by coaches in the Big Sky preseason poll, start the weekend in Cheney on Friday looking for redemption a match against Eastern Washington, who was picked to finish last in the poll, but already beat UM once in a nonconference tussle in Missoula this season.

Montana then caps the trip in the Kibbie Dome on Sunday at Idaho, a perennial conference powerhouse picked seventh in the preseason poll this year under second year coach Sanne Louwers.

With just six of the top nine teams in the league advancing on to the Big Sky championship tournament, win these two and Montana will be very close to punching its ticket to Phoenix having already taken down Portland State, who was picked between EWU and Idaho in the preseason poll at No. 7.

The Griz and Eagles start the weekend on Friday night at 5 p.m. (MT), while the match against the Vandals gets going at 11 a.m. (MT) Links to a live ESPN+ broadcast of the match at Idaho and live scoring can be found on the team's schedule page at GoGriz.com.

"We are excited to jump back into conference play. Picking up a road win in Portland was great and now we want to get back on the road and work hard to earn a shot at more wins," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"It's challenging on the road, so everyone has been focused and working to improve the last couple weeks in preparation for more tough conference matches."

At 2-9 and 1-0 in league play, Montana enters the road trip coming off a narrow 4-3 loss to regional power New Mexico in Missoula on the heels of a 4-3 win over Portland State in Portland.

The Griz have narrowly missed out on several big wins this season, falling 3-4 to both Utah State and North Dakota during the nonconference season.

Montana is led by Hailey Murphy, who, at 8-3 is already the winningest player in the Big Sky and hasn't missed a beat since moving up to court one from the second line.

Rosie Sterk has been one of the Grizzlies that has been on the cusp of several big wins and finally had a breakthrough against New Mexico. In her first win in four outings, she beat Maria Sodre in a first set tiebreaker before powering through to the 7-6 (2), 6-4 win on court six.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES: After beating a banged-up Grizzly squad in Missoula for their first win of the year, Eastern Washington has built up a 3-10 overall record. They added an impressive win over Montana State and a win over Whitman as well, but also fell to the same Portland State team UM beat 2-5 in Portland.

EWU beat Montana 5-2 in a nonconference match in Missoula about a month ago with the Grizzlies missing two of their top three players to injury in Kelsey Phillips and Grace Haugen. The Griz are expected to have a full lineup this week, however. Hailey Murphy and Maria Goheen each moved up from their previous lines and picked up wins for Montana.

UM beat Eastern 4-3 in Missoula last year, but in their last trip to Cheney fell 3-4 in a 2002 dual.

SCOUTING THE VANDALS: Idaho opens its conference slate this weekend with both Montana schools visiting Moscow. The Vandals start the week at 6-4 and have a 4-3 win over the same Utah State team that edged out Montana 4-3 in Missoula just a few weeks ago.

Three players on the Idaho squad enter the weekend with five or more singles wins, and they're all freshmen. Ida Johansson (5-3), Diana Khaydarshina (6-3), and Naomi Schraeder (6-3) are UI's winningest players, giving Vandal fans plenty to be excited about in the future.

The Griz logged a big 5-2 win over Idaho last season in Missoula with a doubles point and four wins at the bottom of the lineup. The last meeting in Moscow, however, resulted in a 7-0 win for the home team.

UP NEXT: Montana plays one final nonconference match before making a hard push toward the Big Sky tournament when New Mexico State visits Missoula on March 23. After that, the Griz get four-straight league matches at home against the cream of the Big Sky Crop with four of the top six preseason picks coming to Missoula.

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Players Mentioned

Maria Goheen

Grace Haugen

Hailey Murphy

Kelsey Phillips

Rosie Sterk

University of Montana Athletics