MISSOULA — Picked to finish fifth in the Big Sky Conference’s preseason poll after a decade mired in the depths of the league standings, no one predicted the Montana women’s tennis team would do what it did on Saturday.
The Griz handed rival Montana State its only dual loss of the year in Bozeman, beating the Bobcats 5-2 to clinch a share of the program’s first Big Sky regular season championship since 2014.
To get the win and take home a trophy, Montana pulled out a nailbiter in doubles that saw two of the three matches go to a tiebreaker. In singles, the top of the Grizzly lineup came through big with wins at Nos. 1-3.
“They were able to step up and make shots, make a volley, it was just really fun,” Montana coach Steve Ascher said. “That’s one for the ages.”
Montana heads to the postseason tournament as the No. 2 seed after capping the regular season at 6-2 in conference play and 8-11 overall.
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Sophomore Hailey Murphy solidified her case for Big Sky MVP with a straight set win at No. 1 to improve her singles record to 16-3 and stay undefeated at 8-0 in league play at No. 1, having won 10 straight matches.
Kelsey Phillips is also a strong contender for Freshman of the Year after winning yet another come-from-behind thriller against MSU, down a set and rallying from down 4-1 in a third set tiebreaker for UM’s second win.
Phillips, a native of Minnesota, is now 6-2 in conference play and 9-8 overall, having won eight of her last nine matches and having to pull four of those out in three sets with two tiebreakers thrown in for good measure.
Montana State fell to 13-6 and at 4-4 in conference play will take the No. 4 seed at the tourney in Phoenix.
“MSU is very consistent,” Ascher said. “They don’t make a lot of mistakes and they don’t give you free points. So, we were able to take a little more risk and we had to win some points on our own because they didn’t give it to us.
“We talked about not waiting back for someone to make a mistake. You’re not going to be given a Big Sky title. We did that a little bit last week against ISU and today I think we went out and we got the win ourselves.”
Montana broke through with an early 1-0 lead after winning the doubles round in about as narrow of fashion is as possible in college tennis.
Grace Haugen and Rosie Sterk dominated at No. 2 to start the round, blowing past MSU’s Cuquerella/Doughrty pair 6-0 to improve to 9-7 (6-2 BSC) as a pair this year and put the momentum firmly with Montana.
Murphy and Phillips held a brief lead over MSU’s Garcia-Reboredo/Hawkins pair at No. 1, but the Bobcats caught fire in the breaker and won the set 7-6 (1), leaving No. 3 as the decider.
It was the opposite for Maria Goheen and Olivia Oosterbaan, who found themselves trailing 5-3 but got a break to force a tiebreaker. The Grizzly seniors then found themselves tied 3-3 in the extra frame, but took control when their team need it most, winning the set 7-6 (4) and clinching the point for UM.
Murphy beat Maria Garcia-Reboredo at No. 1 singles, powering her way to a 6-2, 6-4 win.
Phillips was the next to finish at No. 2 , having to rebound from a first set loss to do it. The Grizzly freshman lost the first set to MSU’s Paula Dougherty in convincing fashion, but found a new gear in the second set to win and force a third. From there it was neck and neck until the two eventually played a tiebreaker for the third.
Phillips found herself trailing 4-1 in the extra frame, but stormed back to beat Dougherty 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to put UM up, 3-0, and put the championship within sight.
At No. 3, Haugen fed off that shift in momentum, coming back from a first set loss of her own to beat Meg McCarty in three sets, and she didn’t need a tiebreaker to do it. The UM junior won the last two sets convincingly, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, to clinch the win for the Grizzlies.
Oosterbaan then added the last win for the Griz at No. 5, beating MSU’s Felicia Jayasaputra in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 to give UM its fifth and final win.
