Griz take down defending champ Lumberjacks 6-1

Thursday, April 4

Missoula, Mont.

9:30 AM

Montana

Northern Arizona

Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana

4/4/2024 5:31:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's tennis team earned its biggest win, not only of the season, but one of its biggest wins of the last decade on Thursday, taking down six-time defending Big Sky champion Northern Arizona 6-1 in Missoula.

The Griz won the doubles point and took three of the top four singles matches en route to their first win over the Lumberjacks since 2015.

Seniors Maria Goheen and Olivia Oosterbaan clinched the doubles round with their first D-I win of the year together. With straight set wins on all but one court, freshman Kelsey Phillips provided the heroics as the clincher in singles, bouncing back from a first set loss to seal the UM victory in three sets.

The win improves the Grizzlies to 3-1 in conference play (5-10 overall), equaling their total league wins from last year and putting them in striking distance of punch their ticket to the conference tournament in Phoenix. NAU falls to unfamiliar territory at 2-4 in league play and 5-11 on the year, but still have a road win over a ranked opponent on their resume at No. 69 UNLV in Las Vegas.

Montana has now won four of its last six duals and has missed out on a six-match win streak by just two sets over the last month. The Griz have also won four of their last six doubles points, a correlation that is always strong in college tennis.

"The doubles was huge. Maria and Olivia's doubles win was great and really timely, but everyone just stepped up. Everyone was playing well and making adjustments, and I think exceeded expectations in certain moments. That's what we're hoping for when we show up each day for these matches is to have something special happen, and today was special," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"I've been really impressed with the response since the Idaho match. They've been taking more accountability for their actions and stepped up their discipline. Every practice has been a little more focused, and I feel like they're taking a bigger piece of ownership of the program. That's really starting to show out there."

Gallery: (4-4-2024) WTEN: Montana vs NAU (4.4.24)

Montana and Northern Arizona split the top two doubles matches to leave the result of the always important opening team point on court three with Oosterbaan and Goheen, who entered the match at 1-12 together this season.

Grace Haugen and Rosie Sterk improved to 7-5 on the year together with a 6-4 win on court two over NAU's Niewiadomski/Dhul pair to open the scoring. The Lumberjacks bounced right back though, tying the round on court one with a 6-3 win from the Shoshyna/Tumthong pair over UM's Phillips/Murphy pair.

In the deciding match on court three, Goheen and Oosterbaan started strong with a 4-1 lead in the set. NAU climbed right back into contention at 4-3, and the two teams would hold serve to make it a 5-4 UM lead coming down to the wire

Mistakes then killed NAU when the pressure was on with serve, giving up three double faults in the last four points to hand the Grizzly pair a 6-4 win, and give Montana a crucial 1-0 lead heading into singles.

With a boost of confidence, Montana started strong in singles.

Hailey Murphy again proved her first-team all-conference credentials with UM's first win of the day, a dominant 6-3, 6-1 win over Pat Niewiadomska on court one that improves the sophomore to an impressive 12-3 record this season – the second-most wins in the league.

Murphy's win made the team score 2-0 and firmly placed the momentum inside the Peak on Montana's side.

The 'Jacks weren't done yet, however, with Dolavee Tumthong fending off a secnd-set rally from Goheen on court four to win 6-4, 6-4, and cut into the Grizzly lead 2-1.

But from there, it was all Montana.

Haugen won her first set on court three and recovered from a second set 0-2 deficit and breaking Daryna Shoshyna's serve to take a 4-3 lead before slicing a little backhand drop shot to win 6-4, 6-3, and put UM up 3-1 in the team score.

Battling through back pain, Philips came through with the match clinching win on court two, bouncing back form a first set loss to win in three.

The freshman started slow, falling behind NAU senior and Western Michigan transfer Ana Guadiana 1-4 early in the first set before eventually catching fire and breaking the visitor's serve to tie the set 4-4.

Phillips would go on to lose the first set, but by the time the second set came around the momentum inside the Peak had changed and the UM No. 2 charged ahead to take a 3-0 lead and eventually winning the set 6-4 to tie the match.

In the deciding set, Phillips again started strong and fired off two-straight aces to help take a 4-1 lead. Guadiana fought back, however, winning two-straight games and breaking Phillips' serve to cut the lead to 4-3. But Phillips would break right back to take a 5-3 lead with serve in hand for match point. Again the serve got broke, however, as Phillips missed wide right on a deuce match point to make it 5-4 and give Guadiana one more shot at serving to tie.

Against the serve, Phillips held strong, however, forcing the visitor into mistakes with her strong forehand, eventually double faulting on match point to hand Phillips a gritty 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win, clinching for the Grizzlies at 4-1.

"She (Guadiana) was a ripper. I mean, she hit through the ball consistently, so I tried to hit as many deep balls as I could and tried to hit to her backhand more. Her forehand just rips. She's an awesome player, but I'm really proud of the fact that I forced a win instead of just taking it," said Phillips.

"Obviously, I was really nervous, but I had a lot of belief in myself, and when I clinched, seeing everyone so excited was awesome. We've grown so much as a team and we've become so close, it was an awesome feeling.'

Oosterbaan then went on to pick up another win for UM, beating Ava Neystani on court five handily 6-2, 7-5. Sterk put the exclamation point on the match for the Griz, beating Laura Duhl 7-5, 6-2, on court six to make the final score 6-1 for Montana.

UP NEXT: The Grizzlies get another shot at a big-time conference win on Friday morning when they take on the first place Sacramento State Hornets at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula at 9:30 a.m.