Griz fall at Idaho State 6-1

Friday, March 21

Pocatello, Idaho

Noon

Montana

Idaho State

Photo by: Tommy Martino

3/21/2025 5:19:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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By: Montana Sports Information

Grizzly ace Grace Haugen picked up wins in singles and doubles to lead the Montana women's tennis team on Friday as the Griz dropped a Big Sky Conference dual to Idaho State 6-1 in Pocatello.

Montana falls to 3-10 on the season and 1-3 in conference action following the team's fourth-consecutive loss, while the Bengals improve to 8-8 overall and 2-2 in the Big Sky.

Haugen improved to 8-3 overall in her senior campaign and is now 3-1 in league singles play. She and doubles partner Rosie Sterk also improved their status as one of the Big Sky's top pairs at 8-4 together on court one and 3-1 Big Sky.

With Haugen and Sterk cruising to a 6-0 win on doubles court one, Montana was close to claiming the opening doubles point, with Olivia Moir and Kelsey Phillips falling in a narrow 7-5 decision that could have put the Griz up 1-0, but it was not to be.

In singles, Haugen was made to work for a straight-set win over Stefanya Shalakhova on court one, with both sets going to a tiebreaker. The Grizzly senior eked out a 7-6 (5) win in her first set before pulling away in the second tiebreaker 7-6 (2).

Wins were hard to come by for the remainder of Montana's lineup, with Idaho State picking up straight-set victories on each of the remaining five singles courts to make it a 6-1 final team score.

"This was a humbling result today. Hats-off to Idaho State for playing a good match. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and decide how we want to compete going forward. We will challenge ourselves from this disappointment and work to be a much more competitive team tomorrow," said head coach Steve Ascher.

Montana will now play a neutral site nonconference dual against Utah Tech (2-9) to cap its trip to Pocatello on Saturday morning.