Griz open home stand against New Mexico State

After splitting a Big Sky road trip to Eastern Washington and Idaho, the Montana women's tennis team returns home for its final nonconference match of the season as the New Mexico State Aggies visit Missoula for a one-off dual on Saturday.

Settle in Griz fans, it's also the first of five-straight home matches for Montana, with conference play beginning in earnest in two weeks and all eyes on the Big Sky championship tournament in Phoenix at the end of April.

Before all that though, Montana (3-10, 2-1 BSC) gets its second shot at a team from The Land of Enchantment in the last two weeks when the Aggies (3-8, 0-1 CUSA) come to the Peak Racquet Club on Saturday, with start time set for 9:30 a.m.

The Griz narrowly lost to the University of New Mexico 3-4 back on May 7 in Missoula. Three days later New Mexico State traveled north on I-25 to Albuquerque and lost to the Lobos 2-4.

By the law of transitive properties, Montana has a big opportunity this week to take down a Conference USA opponent for its first nonconference D-I win. However, NMSU's only other match against a familiar opponent to date was a 5-2 win over Weber State, setting up an intriguing showdown.

"We're excited to have New Mexico State coming to Missoula. We haven't played them in a very long time, so it's exciting to play teams we don't get to see as often," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"It's been a good week of practice, so I'm excited to watch the team come out compete and get after it."

As winners of two of their last four duals with both of those losses coming down to a 3-4 decision, it's also an opportunity to build momentum heading into the heart of the Big Sky schedule. Montana enters the week currently sitting at No. 4 in the standings, needing to finish in the top six to advance to the postseason tourney.

The Griz have been especially strong at the top of the lineup with winning overall singles records on both court one and court two. Doubles is also starting to click for UM as winners of three of the last four opening points and two pairings sitting at 3-0 in Big Sky.

A big reason for all that has been the emergence of sophomore Hailey Murphy and freshman Kelsey Phillips at the top of the singles lineup.

Murphy has emerged as a legitimate first team all-conference contender, and with a solid back half of the season could work her way into regional rankings at 10-3 in singles with wins over opponents from Gonzaga, Cal Poly, Utah State, Washington State, New Mexico, and Idaho, among others.

Her 10 wins are currently tied for the third most in the Big Sky this week, trailing only Weber's Megan Davies (13-2) and Sac State's Irene Ria (11-1).

The Canadian earned UM's nomination for Big Sky Player of the Week on Monday after going undefeated in both singles and doubles in the split road trip to EWU and Idaho. The sophomore got all her wins in dominant fashion as well, winning both singles matches in straight sets and not giving up more than three games all weekend.

At EWU she beat Scout Mathews 6-1, 6-2, on singles court one and partnered with Kelsey Phillips for a 6-1 win over Mathews and Isabella Foshee in doubles on court one. Against Idaho, she blanked Selin Sepken in the first set on singles court one, winning 6-0, 6-3. She and Phillips also beat Idaho's Rodas/Schraeder pair 6-3 in doubles.

Phillips has found her rhythm after swapping court one for court two with Murphy, entering the NMSU match having won three-straight, including a win over Kathrine Jhang of New Mexico.

Her and Murphy have also seen success together on the doubles court at 3-0 in Big Sky play and 6-6 together on the season.

They're one of two Grizzly pairings that have yet to be beat in doubles, with last year's all-conference doubles pick Rosie Sterk and Grace Haugen sitting at 3-0 in league play and 5-5 overall as a partnership.

SCOUTING THE AGGIES: NMSU is led into Missoula by sophomore Anna Pinaieva who led the team at 14-9 and 7-2 last season as a freshman and again has the most wins for the Aggies at 6-4 this season playing at the top of the lineup.

Head coach Emily Wang is in her seventh season in Las Cruces, having captured the 2019 WAC title and advanced to the WAC tournament championship on two other occasions.

NEXT UP: Following a bye week, Montana returns to Big Sky action with a big opportunity make a statement in the standings as the preseason favorite Northern Arizona Lumberjacks come to town on April 4.

Despite being picked to win the league title, NAU has been up and down this season, currently sitting at the bottom of the standings at 0-2 in league play and 3-8 overall. In a sign of strength around the rest of the conference, Weber State and Idaho State have both upended the lumberjacks, but NAU has also logged wins over UTEP and UNLV.

A day later on April 5 the team currently at the top of the standings, Sacramento State, heads to Missoula for a league dual as well, setting up one of the most challenging weekends of the year for the Grizzlies.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Grace Haugen

Hailey Murphy

Kelsey Phillips

Rosie Sterk

University of Montana Athletics