Bengals snap Grizzly win streak 4-3 in Missoula

Sunday, April 14

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

Idaho State

4/14/2024 9:21:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's tennis team hit a bump in the road in its quest for a regular season conference title on Sunday, falling to Idaho State 4-3 in a back-and-forth dual at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula that snapped UM's four match win streak.

ISU took the court with a team full of seniors and picked up an early lead with a sweep of the doubles round. The Griz bounced back in singles with three wins at the top of the lineup, but the Bengals roared on courts four, five, and six to secure the win.

Close matches have been a calling card for Montana this season, with the loss to ISU marking the seventh dual of the year to come down to a 4-3 final score.

The Griz weren't the only ones chasing a title, either. With both Montana (7-11 overall) and Idaho State (11-5 overall) now at 5-2 in the Big Sky, the regular season championship will come down to the final weekend of play next week with UM, ISU, and Sacramento State still in the hunt.

"Idaho State is loaded with seniors, and they played well. I thought they made good adjustments, competed well and they got through. I think we did a great job after doubles, of doing what we do, competing hard and giving our best out there. We just didn't have enough to cross the finish line today," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"I'm super proud of the way the team competed, especially with the magnitude of a match like that though. They've never been in a situation where the stakes were so high, and I thought they did an incredible job of handling themselves and competing."

Montana dropped its second straight and just its third doubles round in conference play this season to start the match against ISU, with the Bengals pulling away in all three closely contested matches.

Rosie Sterk and Grace Haugen were up early but dropped a 6-4 decision to ISU's Shalakhova/Shoybek pair. Soon after, seniors Maria Goheen and Olivia Oosterbaan also lost 6-4 to the Lang/Cho pair to give the Bengals a 1-0 lead.

The lead wouldn't last long in singles, however, with Grizzly Sophomore Hailey Murphy dominating Hana Cho in straight sets, hardly breaking a sweat in a 6-2, 6-1 win on court one.

Murphy is now 15-3 on the season and remained undefeated at 7-0 in conference play, making a strong argument for Big Sky MVP with just one match remaining in the midst of one of the best individual seasons in program history.

Haugen then gave Montana the team lead with a win on court three, starting slow in each set but revving up to beat Sol O'Lideadha 6-3, 6-4, to boost the energy in the Peak and put UM up 2-1.

ISU tied the match again soon after when Maria Goheen lost her winning touch from the first set and fell to Stefanya Shalakhova in three sets 6-3, 3-6, 1-6 on court four.

Kelsey Phillips put the Griz right back in the lead 3-2 though with a three-set win of her own over Lola O'Lideadha. Phillips started behind with a 3-6 loss in the first set but stayed alive in the second to force a tie breaker.

That's where the freshman seized control of the match coming all the way back from a 3-6 deficit in the second set tiebreaker and fending off five match points to win the set 7-6 (6) and take all the momentum. She then rolled to victory in the third set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and eventually winning 6-3.

Haugen and Phillips' win over the gritty O'Lideadha twins was the first time Montana had beaten the seniors from Ireland in the same dual in their Bengal careers.

With a 3-2 lead and the Griz needing just one win on the final two courts, it was not to be for Montana.

Oosterbaan went up 3-0 in the first set and it looked as though UM was in the driver's seat, but Asem Shoybek heated up and rattled off wins in nine of the last 10 games to beat the Grizzly senior 6-4, 6-0 in straight sets.

On the sixth and deciding court, Sterk went serve-for-serve with Megan Lang-Gould in the early going but eventually found herself down 4-5 against the serve. The Grizzly junior then came up with a big break that would eventually lead to a tiebreaker, but her luck ran out falling 7-6 (3) in the opening set.

Lang-Gould would keep the momentum from there, winning the second 6-3, and tipping the scales in favor of ISU 4-3.

UP NEXT: There's a Great Divide worth of implications next week when the third place Griz travel to Bozeman to take on the fourth place Bobcats, who now sit at 13-5 and 4-3 in league play after beating Weber State on Sunday.

Not only does the winner get in-state bragging rights, a win for the Griz could still secure them a share of the regular season championship. The winner will also get a valuable Brawl of the Wild series point for their respective institution, with the series currently tied at six with five events left to play.

Weather it's tennis, football, basketball, or volleyball, these are the scenarios that make Montana hearts tick.

"We have an awesome opportunity next week. We put in two hard days here this week, so we need to rest the bodies a little and reenergize before we play in Bozeman on Saturday because we know it's going to be a loud and energetic environment," said Ascher.

"We're two evenly matched teams and we're both going to the conference tournament, but this one is meaningful. It's the last match of the year, we have a chance to win a title, and it's Griz/Cat. There's nothing like it."