Five Grizzlies take All-Big Sky tennis honors
4/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 26, 2011
University of Montana senior Rebecca Bran and junior Carl Kuschke earned First-Team All-Big Sky honors Tuesday, with seniors Whitney Paluch and Josh Smith taking second team honors alongside freshman Mikolaj Caruk. Rounding out the Grizzly honorees for 2011 was sophomore Constance Alexander, who received honorable mention status in the league's office release.
The All-Big Sky teams named Tuesday were determined by an all-coaches' nomination and vote process which concluded this week.
Kuschke's first-team naming was his second consecutive distinction for his work at No. 1 on the league's second-placed Grizzly team. The Johannesburg, South Africa native started off the 2011 dual season with a 4-0 record at No. 1 which earned the junior his first Big Sky Player of the Week Honor for 2011. Just two weeks later, Kuschke was again named POTW for his three-set victory over No. 56 Marius Christae in the 4-3 UM upset of the No. 51 Idaho team.
In late-season play, Kuschke fought through injury to assume 10 singles wins for the Grizzlies, including a three-set victory in UM's final match vs. Northern Arizona in UM's Big Sky semifinal appearance.
The first-team distinction is the second-like honor for Kuschke and the third All-conference honor in as many years for the junior, who pulled a second-team award as a freshman in 2009.
Kuschke said, "I'm excited to have been grouped in with all of those first team guys that have competed so well this year. With all of the competitive players that compete in the Big Sky, I feel very fortunate to have made it. That being said, I believe that I had a good season-maybe with a little bit of a slump there in the middle, but I was fortunate enough to finish well and to play with a group of guys who all competed well in those instances when I could not."
UM men's coach Kris Nord, who will begin his 30th season with Montana in the fall said, "Carl's award is well deserved. He played well for us this year and was a major leader in every match with the way that he competed.
"With a few more tweaks, Carl's game can get even better and I am excited for him to come out in a senior year where, due to his hard work and ability to learn, he will be playing even better."
Rebecca Bran's first-team honor as a senior was her first all-conference award. UM coach Steve Ascher said, "It's huge when you can watch a player improve as Beck(Bran) has over the years, both in her game and how she plays based upon her past experiences.
"As our player of the year, she has achieved so much mentally: When her body has said `no,' when she was under tremendous pressure, she has had the head to get back into the game and to make it work for her team."
In a dual season where Bran took 13 wins for Montana, playing primarily at No. 1, and played to a 7-2 Big Sky result, the Melbourne, Aus. native played nine three-set matches, winning the majority of those contests.
One of Bran's only two Big Sky losses was in the April 16 UM loss to Northern Arizona vs. four-year first-team honoree Edit Suhajda. Bran took on Suhajda again just a week later in UM's Big Sky semifinal match, taking the third set in a tiebreaker between the two athletes.
Ascher said, "It is exactly that sort of comeback that demonstrates Rebecca's maturity as a player. It was a great final match for her and a great transition point for her from her collegiate career to the next."
Following the victory, Saturday, the only Big Sky No. 1 that Bran did not defeat was Big Sky MVP No. 93 Tatsiana Kapshai of Sacramento State.
Of her final match, Bran said, "I absolutely love those revenge-type matches and if you look back at my record, from match-to-match or year-to-year, I did my best when I could come back against someone who had previously beaten me."
Joining Bran with All-Big Sky honors was senior Whitney Plauch, a Rapid City, S.D. native who handed in a 16-7 dual season record, interestingly identical to that of MVP Kapshai.
Ascher said, "Whitney was really great in the way that she brought the team together. The way that she improved was mostly due to the confidence that she found in aggressive playing under pressure. She has a real desire and ability to learn and in her point-construction we saw as the dual season progressed, it was clear what she could do as a competitor, especially in a Big Sky sort of situation."
Paluch topped a list of second-team honorees with an 8-1 Big Sky record, including a straight-set victory over three-time first-team honoree Orsi Golvics of NAU.
Ascher said, "In-conference honors are great for our athletes, especially considering that play is based primarily upon Big Sky results. Aside from Sacramento State, we have established ourselves as the only other Big Sky team to have such a difficult non-conference schedule, playing six ranked teams during the dual season."
Also honored in 2011 was Grizzly sophomore Constance Alexander, a first-team player in 2010 who claimed an honorable mention this year for her 10-win season playing primarily at No. 2 for the Grizzlies.
On the men's side, Smith and Caruk made up half of the league's second-team delegation. Caruk was 6-1 in regular season league play, impressively stepping up at No. 2 for the Grizzlies in a must-win situation over NAU in the Grizzlies' final week of play.
Nord said, "Mikolaj really put in some excellent play for us considering that he joined the team mid-season this year, having moved thousands of miles and dealing with that adjustment simultaneously. He has room to improve and the work ethic to do so and I am looking forward to seeing him get better over his years here at UM."
Smith, who joined UM as a junior following the cancellation of the men's tennis program at Indiana State, played to a 6-2 Big Sky finish this year, including important end-of the season wins at No. 2 for the Grizzlies.
Of Smith, his teammate and fellow countrymen, Kuschke said "As always, my hat is off to Josh. He could have easily played at (No.) one for us and with such a big game, probably could have done so as well as I did."
Nord said, "I'm really excited to see Josh's name on that second team. He played through a lot of injury this season without a word of complaint, even in a grinding match that he took for us at the Big Sky Championships Saturday. I just wish that I had him for s couple more years."
