Phillips stays unbeaten in league play as Griz drop two on road

Saturday, March 7

Moscow, Idaho

11 AM

Montana

Idaho

The Montana Grizzlies face the Sacramento State Hornets at the Peak Racquet Club on February 27, 2026 in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Coral Scoles-Coburn / University of Montana

Phillips stays unbeaten in league play as Griz drop two on road

3/8/2026 6:08:00 PM | Women's Tennis

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By: Montana Sports Information

Grizzly No. 1 Kelsey Phillips took a pair of top line wins to stay undefeated in Big Sky play, highlighting Montana's two match road trip to Idaho and Eastern Washington over the weekend. Phillips improved to 3-0 in league play with a pair of victories, but as a team the Griz lost to the Vandals 1-6 and came just short of an upset of the Eagles, falling 3-4 in a dual that saw five of the six singles matches go three sets.

Montana now drops to 2-8 overall and 0-3 in Big Sky play this season while Idaho improved to 8-6 (3-0 BSC), and Eastern Washington continued to be the surprise of the conference this year at 8-4 overall and 2-0 in league play after beating both Treasure State teams.

"Those were two competitive matches this weekend. We got ourselves in positions to win in sets. Now the next step is getting over the finish line more often. We are showing good signs of growth and will continue to learn and get better through the hard matches," said head coach Steve Ascher.

Saturday's match, Idaho (picked third in the Big Sky preseason poll) clinched the doubles and never looked back with wins on five of six singles courts. The Griz were leading one doubles match when Monika Fizova and Shivika Agrawal were up 5-3 on court three, but the point was clinched by the Vandals with 6-3, 6-2, wins on courts one and two.

Phillips was dominant in her court one win over Chenyue Xu, one of the top freshman in the league a season ago. The Grizzly junior won her fourth match in the last five outings, sweeping Xu in straight sets with a 6-2, 6-2, victory.

Meghna Anand also picked up a first set win on court two, beating Noami Schraeder, but falling in a tight third set for a 6-4, 3-6, 5-7 loss. Three other Grizzlies also pushed at least one of their sets to a seventh game, but each came up short in straight set losses.

"Kelsey played solid match against Idaho. It's great to see her embracing a great training schedule and now she is seeing the return on all the investment she has made over the last year," said Ascher.

In the Sunday matinee at EWU's Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse, Montana started from behind again as Eastern Washington claimed the doubles point and took two singles wins to run out to an early 3-0 lead.

Montana came roaring back, however, when Phillips held on to beat Leandra Nizetic in a three-set thriller that featured a tiebreaker and an extra game in the third frame 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-5. The court one win cut the EWU lead to 3-1 and gave the Griz a boost of momentum on the three remaining courts.

UM freshman Meghna Anand also picked up a first set win in a tiebreaker and held on to win in an extra third set game, beating Anait Arutiunian 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-5, on court two, cutting the Eagle lead to 2-3.

EWU then clinched the win on court five with a three-set win for Olivia Marais over Paige Bott, but the Griz had one more win in them. Freshman Kamila Slovakova got her first win this season, beating Aneliss Zamfirescu in come-from-behind fashion 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, to make it a 4-3 final.

"I'm really proud of how we can out and competed in singles today. Eastern is not an easy environment to play in, and we really fought and gave Eastern all they could handle. Kelsey, Meghna, and Kamila pulled out three set wins and fought hard to get over the finish line. Monika and Paige battled into third sets as well," Ascher added.

UP NEXT: Montana returns to the road and continues Big Sky play on a road trip to Oregon. The Griz open the trip with a tune-up against the University of Portland on March 15, followed by a Big Sky showdown against Portland State on March 16.