The Washington State women’s tennis team will compete in Montana today and tomorrow in the second half of the four-match road trip against the Montana Grizzlies and Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Montana will play in their season opener, while Minnesota posted a 4-0 record leading into the meeting with WSU, who is 3-1 on the season.

The Cougars spent last weekend in Hawaii where they dropped their first match to Hawaii Pacific 4-3, but won 4-3 against Hawai’i the following day.

Head Coach Lisa Hart said the team needs to maintain the momentum it has already established in order to return to Pullman with a winning road record.

“We’ve continued to improve in every match so far this season, so building upon where we left off in Hawaii is the key,” Hart said. “We’ve been playing well, so I feel good about it going forward.”

The narrative of the Cougar’s season thus far has been their success in doubles.

Against Hawai’i, WSU captured the opening doubles point for the fourth time in as many attempts, and they were victorious in two of three doubles matches.

WSU dropped the No. 3 doubles match when Hawai’i sophomore Sarah Gealer and senior Kelsey Daguio recorded a 6-4 win against WSU junior Charlotte Koning and sophomore Dajana Ognjenovic.

In No. 1 doubles, junior Elizaveta Luzina and sophomore Lize Leenknecht defeated Hawai’i’s duo of senior Xenia Suworowa and sophomore Paulina Petriskova with a 7-5 win.

The victory helped the Cougars’ No. 1 pairing sustain a perfect 4-0 mark in dual matches this season.

“Lize and I are playing pretty well and have great chemistry together, so I definitely feel that our winning streak will continue,” Luzina said.

WSU’s sophomore Maria Biryukova and senior Olga Musilovich needed a tiebreaker against the Hawai’i offering of freshman Cindy Nguyen and junior Rebecca Faltusz, but the Cougars’ pair managed to pull off the clutch 7-6 (7-4) win with the doubles point on the line.

Hart said she is thrilled with the effort her squad has displayed in dual matches up to this point.

“I love our intensity in the way we’re playing doubles right now,” she said. “Everyone is really following their game plan well and executing.”

In singles action, WSU wasted no time to extend the lead to 2-0 as Biryukova made quick work of Gealer, 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3.

Hawai’i got on the scoreboard after Faltusz defeated Ognjenovic 6-2, 6-2 at No. 6, which was followed shortly by Nguyen winning the match 6-4, 6-2 against Luzina at No. 1.

In No. 4 play, Musilovich regained the lead for the Cougars and improved her singles record to 4-0 with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Petriskova.

Koning followed suit at No. 5 with the match-clinching, 6-2, 6-4 win for the Cougars against Daguio.

Although inconsequential in terms of the outcome, Hawai’i took the day’s final match as Suworowa pulled out the 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 10-4 win against Leenknecht.

“We have many tough matches coming up against ranked teams with the opportunity to earn our own ranking so that’s definitely something we’re looking forward to,” Luzina said.