Griz tennis falls out of the game

Early struggles in doubles competition proved to be too much to overcome for the University of Montana women’s tennis team Sunday.

Despite a pristine blue sky and the warmest weather so far this season, the Griz lost to Montana State 5-2 at the Lindsay Tennis Center.

The UM women’s tennis action over the weekend featured a split, as the team beat Eastern Washington University 5-2 on Saturday, before falling to the rival Bobcats on Sunday. Montana now owns a 3-3 record in Big Sky Conference competition.

The Griz (6-11 overall) got the usual strong performance from the duo of Mari Castello and Liz Walker on Sunday in doubles competition as the pair won their sixth straight doubles match, defeating Montana State’s top doubles tandem of Ali Griffin and Allison Fey, 8-2.

From that point forward, Montana struggled in its matches as Jessica Souza and Rebecca Bran lost to Laura Villegas and Stephanie Jasper, 8-3, while Martyna Nowak and Danni Paulson managed to stay with Nuria Hernandez and McKenzie Hilmer for most of the match before falling 8-6. 

“They really took us out of our game in doubles,” Montana coach Jen Anderson said. “They played well and the score doesn’t indicate the whole story because we were in all those matches but didn’t get the key points.”

Montana fell to fifth place in the Big Sky, but only undefeated Sacramento State and 7-1 Northern Arizona are truly out of reach for the Grizzlies.

Singles competition featured Castello winning in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 and Kayla Moyse winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Once again, Montana faltered down the stretch as the rest of the team struggled to hold their own against the seemingly more confident MSU players.

“Both MSU and Eastern Washington were super-tough, and the doubles really gave the winners an edge,” Paulson said.

She said after the doubles point was lost, the pressure of having to win was so much more intense during the singles competition that it was hard to focus and gain any real confidence.

“We just weren’t able to get any momentum from the start,” Paulson said.

With the Big Sky Tournament quickly approaching, the Griz could finish at 5-3 in league play if they win their last two games, but they will need to start well with successful doubles matches if they hope to join the upper echelon of teams.

The Griz have played well whenever they have succeeded in doubles competition throughout the season.

“We wanted to beat them so bad and it’s really hard when you have all that pressure,” Souza said. 

MSU was tough on the Griz this past weekend, but the team can take heart in the fact that a lot of the matches could have gone either way with a break or two. 

“No matter what our records are, we always have a rivalry with MSU,” Walker said. 

Despite the loss, the Griz have a chance to finish strong. Montana will meet Idaho State on Friday and Weber State on Saturday.

“We just need to use these last few days out there and find out how to get the doubles point every time we play,” Paulson said. “If we support each other on singles and play smart every match, we can really come together and make some noise.”