Grizzly tennis adds Pacific transfer Francis Dean
6/25/2015 8:14:00 PM | Women's Tennis
The University of Montana's women's tennis grew in size by one last week, when Francis Dean accepted a scholarship to play for coach Steve Ascher.
Ascher targeted Dean out of high school, watching a young girl from Southern California play a very smart brand of tennis.
"I had a chance to watch Francis play a couple matches as a senior in high school," Ascher said. "Coming from Southern California, Francis can construct points intelligently and she played the big points with composure. I also like how competitive she is, which has been trained thru tough tournament play for years."
Dean herself says that Montana was an option when she was deciding on where to play out of high school, but she elected to stay close to home and become a Pacific Tiger.
"I spoke to Steve when I was in high school, but at that time I decided I wanted to stay in state," Dean said.
Now, Dean is ready to make the move to the Rocky Mountains and become a Grizzly. She said that a combination of multiple factors led to the decision to transfer to Montana.
"I chose Montana because of the team, the coach and the location," Dean said. "The relationship between the coach and the team is amazing in my point of view. Both sides trust each other, which is exactly what I was looking for."
The addition of Dean makes Montana's roster equal parts transfer players as recruits that originally signed with Montana. The players have all been on Ascher's radar, however, and adding transfers is something that has made this Montana side much more competitive.
"This year half of our roster is built with transfer players," Ascher said. "All the transfers were players that I spent quite a bit of time recruiting. With Francis and Hannah, they chose to go to schools that participated in bigger athletic conferences and greater resources."
Ascher knows that while transfers have already experienced college tennis and have a certain understanding of the collegiate game, he knows that he has a shorter amount of time to work with them.
"I love the challenge of working hard to provide each of out players an amazing college student-athlete experience," Ascher said. "So my goal is to get the transfers to a much higher playing level in a shorter amount of time. The other thing I love about transfers is they understand how much success we have had at Montana and would like to experience these successes for themselves."
Dean is just another example of a player who saw Montana's success and decided she wanted to get a taste of the Big Sky life.
"I saw that the team has always been one of the top teams in the Big Sky Conference, which gives me confidence going into the season next year," Dean said.
Dean will come in and compete for a spot right away next season. With the addition of more players, there will be a good competition between teammates for the top six spots next year, which is something that Ascher believes makes every player better.
"It is important that we are always raising the talent level of our line-up," Ascher said. "This happens in many ways, by having current players raise their level during the offseason and recruiting players with increased resumes and talent."
Ascher listed Precious Gbadamosi and Sasha Carter, who both played the bottom of the line-up in their first years with the team, but eventually rose to the top of the team sheet and became the program's winningest players, as examples of what can happen if you pledge yourself to Montana tennis.
"If you join our program and really commit yourself than the world is your oyster," Ascher said. "The big thing is you have to be open to taking risks in developing your game technically, mentally and emotionally. We have a proven track record of putting our players and team in positions to win at the highest level."
Ascher targeted Dean out of high school, watching a young girl from Southern California play a very smart brand of tennis.
"I had a chance to watch Francis play a couple matches as a senior in high school," Ascher said. "Coming from Southern California, Francis can construct points intelligently and she played the big points with composure. I also like how competitive she is, which has been trained thru tough tournament play for years."
Dean herself says that Montana was an option when she was deciding on where to play out of high school, but she elected to stay close to home and become a Pacific Tiger.
"I spoke to Steve when I was in high school, but at that time I decided I wanted to stay in state," Dean said.
Now, Dean is ready to make the move to the Rocky Mountains and become a Grizzly. She said that a combination of multiple factors led to the decision to transfer to Montana.
"I chose Montana because of the team, the coach and the location," Dean said. "The relationship between the coach and the team is amazing in my point of view. Both sides trust each other, which is exactly what I was looking for."
The addition of Dean makes Montana's roster equal parts transfer players as recruits that originally signed with Montana. The players have all been on Ascher's radar, however, and adding transfers is something that has made this Montana side much more competitive.
"This year half of our roster is built with transfer players," Ascher said. "All the transfers were players that I spent quite a bit of time recruiting. With Francis and Hannah, they chose to go to schools that participated in bigger athletic conferences and greater resources."
Ascher knows that while transfers have already experienced college tennis and have a certain understanding of the collegiate game, he knows that he has a shorter amount of time to work with them.
"I love the challenge of working hard to provide each of out players an amazing college student-athlete experience," Ascher said. "So my goal is to get the transfers to a much higher playing level in a shorter amount of time. The other thing I love about transfers is they understand how much success we have had at Montana and would like to experience these successes for themselves."
Dean is just another example of a player who saw Montana's success and decided she wanted to get a taste of the Big Sky life.
"I saw that the team has always been one of the top teams in the Big Sky Conference, which gives me confidence going into the season next year," Dean said.
Dean will come in and compete for a spot right away next season. With the addition of more players, there will be a good competition between teammates for the top six spots next year, which is something that Ascher believes makes every player better.
"It is important that we are always raising the talent level of our line-up," Ascher said. "This happens in many ways, by having current players raise their level during the offseason and recruiting players with increased resumes and talent."
Ascher listed Precious Gbadamosi and Sasha Carter, who both played the bottom of the line-up in their first years with the team, but eventually rose to the top of the team sheet and became the program's winningest players, as examples of what can happen if you pledge yourself to Montana tennis.
"If you join our program and really commit yourself than the world is your oyster," Ascher said. "The big thing is you have to be open to taking risks in developing your game technically, mentally and emotionally. We have a proven track record of putting our players and team in positions to win at the highest level."
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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