Griz return to road for pair of Big Sky duals

The Montana women's tennis team dives into the heart of Big Sky play this week with an early opportunity to punch its ticket to the conference championship tournament as the Griz head to the Palouse looking for a pair of league road wins.

The Grizzlies (2-6, 0-1 BSC) first travel to Moscow to face perennial championship contenders Idaho (7-6, 2-0 BSC) on Saturday in the Kibbie Dome. UM then heads north to take on an improved Eastern Washington (6-4, 0-0 BSC) squad on Sunday to cap the weekend trip west.

Montana enters the weekend sitting eighth in the league standings in the early going of conference play. With only the top six teams advancing to the Big Sky tournament in Phoenix at the end of April and both of this week's opponents currently in the top half of the table, the Griz have a big chance to solidify a spot at the tourney.

"Picking up road wins in the Big Sky is crucial. Most people win at home, so finding a way to pull out some road wins is going to be a great challenge," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"I think we're playing well and we're practicing well. We got our first taste of conference play last week, and obviously Sac State is good, but now we get to do this every week, which makes these matches more exciting. There's more energy and there's something on the line in conference play. So, it's exciting."

THE SCHEDULE: Montana opens the trip on Saturday, March 7, at 11 a.m. (MT) in Moscow where the Griz will play the Vandals inside the P1FCU Kibbie Dome, one of the most unique venues in college tennis. A day later the Griz play EWU on Sunday, March 8, with opening serves going up at 11 a.m. (MT) as well.

COVERAGE: The Idaho match will be streamed live on ESPN+, with links to watch available on the team's schedule page at GoGriz.com/WTEN. EWU will not have live coverage of the match.

LAST TIME OUT: Montana opened its Big Sky slate with a competitive 1-6 loss to No. 50 ranked and preseason conference favorite Sacramento State in Missoula.

Grizzly junior Kelsey Phillips picked up one of the biggest wins in her career and earned a nomination for the league's Player of the Week after beating defending Big Sky tourney MVP Reese Walker. Phillips automatically puts her name among contenders for All-Big Sky honors with the bounce-back win, starting the match from behind before coming back to defeat Walker in three sets 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. She now opens league play at 1-0 in singles and improved to 4-4 on court one as UM's winningest player.

Phillips and her doubles partner Meghna Anand were also on the verge of an upset against the Hornets. The Grizzly duo was knotted 4-4 with Sac's Baudouin/Riva pair when the point was clinched. Together they are UM's winningest pair at 4-3 on the season.

SCOUTING THE VANDALS: Idaho was picked third in this year's Big Sky preseason poll, missing out on second place by just six voting points with 50. They enter this week's dual against the Griz riding a five-match win streak, with impressive victories over Montana State (5-2) and Utah State (4-3) among them.

SCOUTING THE EAGLES: At 6-4 overall, Eastern Washington has been an upstart this season after being picked eighth out of nine teams in the league's preseason poll. They also enter the weekend on a tear, winning five of their last six duals, including a 7-0 sweep of Seattle U and, like Idaho, a 4-3 win over Utah State as well.

LAST MEETINGS: Montana takes to the road looking for revenge, with both the Vandals and the Eagles beating the Griz in Missoula last season and officially eliminated them from postseason contention. Idaho came over Highway 12 and jumped on the Griz 7-0 before EWU put an end to UM's season with a 6-1 win.

In 2024 Montana split this road trip to the Palouse en route to winning a share of the Big Sky regular season championship. That year the Griz dominated EWU to start the road trip with a 6-1 win before narrowly falling to Idaho 3-4 in the Kibbie Dome. The Griz went on to win five of the last six duals that season to earn a banner.

UP NEXT: UM remains on the road, traveling to Oregon for a pair of matches in the Rose City. The Griz open the trip with a nonconference tune-up at the University of Portland, followed by a league match at Portland State.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Meghna Anand

Kelsey Phillips

University of Montana Athletics