Griz prep for spring season at Bulldog Classic

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Griz prep for spring season at Bulldog Classic

The Montana men's tennis team wraps up its fall schedule this weekend at Gonzaga's Bulldog Classic in Spokane, Wash. against some of the Northwest's best under cover at GU's Stevens Center indoor tennis facility.

Action from Spokane gets underway early on Friday and will last through the weekend, with two singles and a doubles bracket. Each bracket will also have a consolation bracket that begins on Saturday.

COVERAGE: Griz fans can tune in to watch all the action on each court LIVE via Gonzaga Tennis' YouTube Channel web stream. Gonzaga will also provide updates via live stats.

The Bulldog Classic will serve as the Grizzlies' last chance of the season to preview the spring's conference duals schedule, with Portland State, Eastern Washington, and Idaho all slated to enter the draws in Spokane. Seattle University and the University of Portland will also enter a team in the draws.

With a young team that has seen steady improvement so far this season, Montana head coach Kris Nord is looking for his squad to build on the success of UM's current top player Victor Casadevall, who beat the No. 5 seed at the ITA Regionals last week.

"We need to keep the momentum going that we got down in Vegas and Boise," said Nord.

"I feel like there are guys that are close to doing what Victor's been doing, which is knocking a few people off and advancing further in the tournament."

Senior Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and last year's standouts Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl have been on the cusp of upset victories so far this fall. Nord will also be on the lookout for younger players like Ludvig Hallgren, Jacob Schoenherr, Ignacio Tejerina, and Max Korkh to make inroads into the second flight.

"I'd like to see them advance in the draw. We have the potential to do that, where last year we didn't do that. We went out fairly early in the B draw, and I'd like to see us compete better there also. That's typically been the strength of our team is our depth."

The Bulldog Classic marks the end of the fall season for the Grizzlies, but the preparations for the league schedule in the spring is just heating up.

The Griz will get one more week of practice as a team after returning to Missoula next week. They will then spend the month of November in individual and small group work, fine-tuning the details in preparation for the duals season.

"We'll take things we've seen that they need to improve on and we'll work on them hard in November. It's our time to get over the hump on a few weaknesses and stay strong heading into the holiday break," added Nord.

Montana opens its spring season against Lewis-Clark State on Feb. 4 before opening Big Sky play at Northern Colorado the following week on Feb. 10.

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Players Mentioned

Alex Canellopoulos

Victor Casadevall

Ludvig Hallgren

Max Korkh

Peter Mimnagh-Fleming

Yannick Schmidl

Jacob Schoenherr

Ignacio Tejerina

University of Montana Athletics