Ascher's recruiting class draws praise
6/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
June 8, 2011
They will be coming to Missoula in August from Washington, Quebec and Texas. Together they make up one of the nation's best mid-major recruiting classes.
Montana women's tennis coach Steve Ascher's incoming recruiting class of Sasha Carter of Bainbridge Island, Wash., Laurence Pelchat of Repentigny, Quebec, and Precious Gbadamosi of Houston, Texas, was ranked No. 19 recently among mid-majors by TennisRecruiting.net.
The site's listing of mid-majors includes schools in all NCAA divisions outside of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, SEC and Ivy League.
Stephen F. Austin was ranked first, followed by Long Beach State, Pepperdine, St. Mary's and Hawaii.
Montana was the only Big Sky Conference school to make the top 25.
Carter, the 2011 Washington Class 3A runner-up who won Class 1A and 3A state singles titles as a freshman and junior, currently ranks 104th nationally and first in both Washington and the Northwest.
Gbadamosi ranks 106th nationally and eighth in Texas, and Pelchat ranks No. 41 among Canada's U18 players.
Gbadamosi teamed up with her younger sister, Princess, to advance to the semifinals of last month's Texas Class 5A state doubles tournament. She was also a member of Klein High School's regional-qualifying 4x200-meter relay team.
Ascher's 2009 recruiting class of Constance Alexander and Heather Davidson earned a No. 17 ranking by TennisRecruiting.net at the time.
Alexander and Davidson would both earn first-team All-Big Sky Conference honors as true freshmen in 2009-10.
"This is a very comparable recruiting class," Ascher said.
"I'm always looking for a certain type of player, and I think we've done a good job of bringing those types of players in. The direction the program is going is what I've been envisioning.
"This is a good class, and it was a lot of work. A lot of people put in a lot of time.
"We had 27 days of official visits on campus. During that time the team does a lot with the recruits, the department staff is involved, just a lot of time by a lot of people.
"I think we really came out of it with a good group of kids."
Montana, which went 6-2 in Big Sky Conference matches in the spring to finish in third place, will have just one senior on next year's team, Lauren Gibson.
Alexander, who was an honorable mention All-Big Sky selection as a sophomore, and Davidson will be juniors, and Ashley Mackey and Maddy Murray will be sophomores.
Ascher is entering his fourth year at Montana.
