Grizzly tennis adds two players to roster
2/9/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The Grizzly men's tennis team grew in size by two players over the winter break, as Yannick Schmidl and Victor Casadevall were added to coach Kris Nord's roster.
Schmidl, from Germany, and the Spaniard Casadevall have both been on Nord's radar for a while now, and Nord even tried to bring Schmidl in last fall, but couldn't for a variety of reasons.
"I've been on them for quite a while, and I think both of them are going to work out real well," Nord said. "It's early on, but they are good, mature kids and their tennis has a real big upside for both of them."
The two both saw playing time in the Grizzlies first matches of the season last weekend against Utah and Utah State. Schmidl, playing No. 6 singles, defeated Johan Jonhagen from Utah 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (10-6). Casadevall lost a tight match at No. 5 singles against Sebastian Schneider of Utah State 5-7, 7-5, 1-0 (10-8).
Nord was impressed by their play on the opening road trip.
"Yannick beating Utah was great and Victor came real close to beating Utah State," he said. "They weren't overwhelmed and they competed real well. They are going to just get better as they get used to the other guys on the team and get accustomed to me and the whole rigors of what's going on."
For Casadevall, it was the mental attitude that caught Nord's attention the most.
"Victor has great ground strokes and, most importantly, he is calm and competes real well, and that's huge as a freshman," he said. "He didn't get rattled at all. There are still adjustments, physically, to college tennis and playing back-to-back days is going to challenge him a little bit. Mentally, tennis-wise, he is going to be just fine."
Schmidl showed more physical skills in the opening matches, and is going to be a key doubles player for the Griz.
"Yannick's doubles is better," Nord said. "He is in the line-up right now and he is going to stay there. I love that he has really good hands in doubles. His singles has a big upside too. He has a big serve. They both have pretty well rounded games."
The addition makes the Griz a much stronger team overall, Nord believes.
"It gives us a couple more options in doubles and it gives us depth in singles and I needed that," he said. "I needed to have more competition going on at the bottom of the line-up."
Montana (0-2) returns to action Feb. 21, beginning their Big Sky Conference season against Portland State. The next day they will challenge Portland in a non-conference match-up.
Players Mentioned
