Competition for spots tight on opening weekend of Griz tennis

The Montana men's tennis team knocks the lid of the 2015 fall season this weekend in Bozeman with a good kind of problem to solve - too much depth.

The Griz, holding a current roster flush with 14 players, will send six of its top returners to the Montana State Open on Friday to compete against Utah, Utah State, Idaho State and host MSU.

The remaining eight players will stay home in Missoula and battle it out under the watchful eye of head coach Kris Nord in a series of intrasquad matches, with the top six players earning a place on the NCAA regulation 12 man, 2015 roster.

Coach Nord will send his six returners to Bozeman with assistant coach Jason Brown so he can stay at UM and make difficult decisions on the remaining players, the depth of which he's never seen in a Montana squad before.

"This is the deepest 14 tryout kids I've had," says Coach Nord. "It will be the deepest 12 man squad I've ever had, easily.

"We've got some really good players. We've been seven, eight deep in the past, and we're 10, 11 deep now. The guys we have in this lineup can all play."

Nord will have to pair down his current 14-man roster by Wednesday of next week as the full 12-man team prepares to travel to Boise for a tournament that will feature some of the best talent in the West.

The increased level of competition has added some extra buzz around the Griz tennis camp, with competition for spots as high as ever.

"The nicest thought is that we can survive some injuries now, where last year we really couldn't. Last year when we had to pull starters out and our play dropped, and I don't think we have that worry this year," added Nord.

The Griz finished the 2015 season 9-9 last spring, 8-3 in the Big Sky Conference. UM was eliminated in the first round of the conference tournament by Northern Arizona.

"We have more excitement at practice because there's more competition," adds Nord. "But it all comes down to the fact that if we don't get a little bit better every day we don't have to worry about the Big Sky in April, because there are four or five teams in the conference that are all really solid."

The action in Bozeman gets under way on Friday afternoon at 2 p.m.

University of Montana Athletics

Competition for spots tight on opening weekend of Griz tennis

Next Event

Related Videos