Vandals fend-off Grizzly comeback attempt

Sunday, April 6

Missoula, Mont.

10:30 AM

Montana

Idaho

4/6/2025 3:45:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's tennis team won a match in doubles and pushed half of the singles matches to a third set, but was eventually overpowered by Idaho, falling to the second place Vandals 7-0 in a Big Sky dual at the Peak Racquet Club on Sunday.

With the loss Montana falls to 3-13 on the season and 1-5 in conference play while Idaho remains hot as winners in 12 of their last 13 duals at 14-3 on the season and 6-1 in the Big Sky.

Seniors Grace Haugen and Rosie Sterk improved to 11-4 (5-1 BSC) as a doubles pair with a come-from-behind win on court one to remain tied as the winningest pair in the league this season.

In singles, Haugen, sophomore Kelsey Phillips, and freshman Kate Prichard also picked up second set wins on courts one, two, and six, while Sterk pushed her first set to a tiebreaker to keep the outcome balanced on a knife edge for nearly three hours. Eventual wins in each of the singles draws would lead Idaho to victory, however.

"I thought overall our ability to compete, our ability to think through points, our ability to go for the shots and just process the matches was much, much better today. That improvement is what we're looking for. We've been talking a lot about the process, so it's fun to see the stuff we've been working on. Our mindset going into the match was much more engaged too, so I thought that was really good," said head coach Steve Ascher.

Idaho came our firing and Montana started from behind in doubles, down 0-4 on all three courts in short order. The Griz pushed their way back into contention in the top two positions to make it competitive, however.

Haugen and Sterk completed the comeback on court one by forcing Idaho into errors with aggressive play at the net to put UI's Rodas/Schraeder pair under pressure and tie the match 4-4 and eventually take a 5-4 lead. Haugen then broke the Idaho serve with a smashed forehand to the backline that Rodas returned short to give the Grizzly pair a 7-5 win.

Meanwhile Phillips and Olivia Moir also dug their way out of a 4-0 hole on court two against Idaho's Beckx/Johanson pair, punching back to tie the set 4-4 and putting the doubles point up for grabs despite a UM loss on court three. Beckx and Johnanson would break the Grizzlies' serve, however, and pull away for the 6-4 win that led Idaho to the 1-0 advantage.

"Having the opportunity to win the doubles point was awesome as well. We were down in pretty deep holes at one and two, and to find a win at one and be in a position to win at two was awesome. I'm really proud of the way we competed on the back half of those doubles sets," Ascher added.

In singles, Montana rode a momentum shift inside the Peak as Sterk pushed Hanna Koprowska to a first set tiebreaker on court three, at the same time boosting Haugen and Phillips to a pair of 6-2 second set wins that left the dual a toss-up heading into third sets.

Sterk would run out of gas in her second set, however, falling to Koprowska 7-6 (7), 6-3, for the Grizzlies' second loss of singles after a loss from Monika Fizova on court four that made it a 3-0 Vandal lead, with Haugen and Phillips still keeping UM alive in the top two positions.

There the momentum would shift back to the Vandals, however, with Haugen dropping her third set to fall to Diana Khaydarshina 2-6, 6-2, 2-6 to clinch the Idaho team victory.

Soon after, Phillips was up 5-4 serving for the win in her third set with deuce and match point, but an ill-timed injury forced her to miss a return and eventually led Annabel Davis to the 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 win on court two.

Prichard capped the day for Montana on court six, nearly pulling off her first Big Sky dual win as a Grizzly in a third set superbreaker, but it was not to be as Chenyue Xu held on to win 6-1, 4-6, 1-0 (11) to keep Griz winless on the day at 7-0.

Montana returns home on Saturday, April 12, for the annual Brawl of the Wild match against Montana State (9-9, 3-3 BSC) starting at 2 p.m. at the Peak Racquet Club south of Missoula off Blue Mountain Road. The match is open to the public and free to attend.