Griz to face Sac State in Big Sky semifinal

Two of the three co-Big Sky champions will go head-to head when the No. 2 seed Montana women's tennis team takes on No. 3 seed Sacramento State at the conference championship tournament in Phoenix on Friday.

The Griz received a first-round bye at the tournament as the second seed and will now face the Hornets at 9 a.m. (MT) in the semifinal after Sac State came from behind to beat Northern Arizona 4-3 in a four-and-a-half-hour marathon of a first round match under the Arizona sun on Thursday.

"What a battle they played against NAU," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"We're looking forward to it. We had a great match against them at home and the players are really excited about playing them again. So, spirits are high, and I think the mindset is in the right place."

Links to live scoring of the UM/SAC match can be found on the schedule page at GoGriz.com/WTEN.

Montana picked up one of its signature wins this season over Sac State in early April, beating the Hornets 5-2 in Missoula when they were sitting first in the league standings and at the time, were winners of 12 of their last 13 matches, and undefeated in conference play.

That all ended when now-Big Sky MVP Hailey Murphy rebounded from a second set loss to beat Mayya Gorbunova 6-1, 6-7 (1), 6-4, in an epic back-and-forth battle to clinch the Grizzly victory.

Murphy and Freshman of the Year Kelsey Phillips got a win in doubles to start the match, and UM won the opening point with another win from Rosie Sterk and Grace Haugen in a 7-6 (5) tiebreaker.

Phillips got the first win in singles for UM, beating Maddy Ferreros in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, to put the Griz up 2-0. Maria Goheen also rebounded from a first set loss to beat Elena Mercioiu 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, to extend the lead to 3-0 before Murphy clinched. Sterk closed out the match with a straight set win of her own on court six.

Montana will be looking for its first Big Sky tourney victory since 2015 when the Griz beat Portland State 4-0 in the quarterfinal. UM has only beaten SAC once in in the postseason, however, at 1-6 all time against the perennial conference powerhouse.

Montana is bolstered with momentum headed into the semifinal as a winner in six of its last eight matches and coming off a big 5-2 win over Montana State in Bozeman that cliched UM's second regular season title in program history.

After a season for the ages, the Grizzlies swept the end of year conference awards on Wednesday. Murphy was named MVP, Phillips Freshman of the Year, and Ascher was voted Big Sky Coach of the Year by his peers for the third time in his career.

Murphy was also a unanimous first team all-conference selection in singles, Phillips earned second team singles honors, and together they were named second team all-conference as a doubles pair. Sterk and Haugen capped Montana's haul with a doubles all-conference honorable mention.

The winner of the Montana/Sac State match will advance on to the Big Sky tile match where they will face the winner of the Idaho State/Weber State semifinal on Saturday at 9 a.m. (MT).

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Players Mentioned

Maria Goheen

Grace Haugen

Hailey Murphy

Kelsey Phillips

Rosie Sterk

University of Montana Athletics