Tennis program adds three

In the spring of 2014, the Montana women's tennis program was on top of the world.

Within a month's time, the Grizzlies snapped Sacramento State's 112-match unbeaten streak against Big Sky Conference opponents, won their first regular-season championship and advanced to their third consecutive Big Sky tournament title match.

Four Montana players were voted All-Big Sky Conference that season, with the foundation of the program being backboned by Sasha Carter, Precious Gbadamosi and Laurence Pelchat, who would win 91, 86 and 85 singles matches, respectively, in their careers, plus another 248 times in doubles.

Then that world changed and so did Montana's fortunes. Just two springs later the Grizzlies finished 4-17 and missed the Big Sky tournament for the first time since 1989. Not a single player earned even honorable mention all-league honors.

"We've had a couple of top 25 mid-major recruiting classes since we've been here, but with the recent changes within the NCAA, like schools being able to offer cost of attendance, recruiting has changed," said ninth-year coach Steve Ascher.

"I've been doing the same thing the last couple of years, but it hasn't been working. I've had to adapt and find a different approach to the way I do things."

It will be years before Ascher's latest recruiting class -- Bianca Bostrom, of Malmo, Sweden; Eimear Maher, of Newbridge, Ireland; and Julia Ronney, of San Diego, Calif. -- can be fairly judged, but at least for now it reminds the coach of the threesome that led the program to such unprecedented success.

"You don't want to compare, but this group is athletic, it's driven, and it's hungry," Ascher said. "We just had to take a different approach to our recruiting, in terms of some different avenues that we explored, some different communication and some different kinds of outreach.

"We've had success recruiting in the past, so we knew we'd have success again. We just needed to change our approach to reflect how the environment has changed."

Bostrom comes out of Sweden as one of her country's top players. She took bronze last year in the U18 age group at Sweden's national championships, and she has six career age-group medals in doubles at the same national tournament, including one gold.

"First of all, the University of Montana is well ranked and a relatively big university," said Bostrom. "The team has good team spirit and a positive coach.

"There is the possibility to participate in competitions in different parts of the U.S., and the nature in Montana is really beautiful."

As Bostrom is in Sweden, Maher, who competes for her school in basketball and Gaelic football, is in Ireland: one of her nation's best. She won U18 doubles and mixed doubles national titles last summer at the Irish Junior Championships and was a quarterfinalist in singles.

"The first thing caught my attention is that the University of Montana is so highly rated academically," said Maher. "Another thing I really liked was how beautiful the campus was and how interlinked it was with the city of Missoula.

"The tennis program and facilities are also very impressive. After speaking to (Steve), who outlined his philosophy and his plans for the program going forward, I knew that Montana was the place I wanted to study and play tennis for the next four years."

Ronney, a senior at Patrick Henry High in San Diego, was named the Eastern League Player of the Year last summer. She is a three-time all-league recipient and was half of the Eastern League's doubles champion team in 2014.

"I really wanted to leave Southern California for college and experience different scenery, with mountains and trees and leaves changing in the fall," said Ronney. "I love the school spirit and the pride it has in the Grizzlies.

"I work really well with the coach and get along well with the girls on the team, so it was a great school for me. I was also drawn to the wildlife biology program, because I aspire to become a veterinarian. It was a perfect fit."

Montana has three seniors on this year's team, Anabel Carbo, Stanzi Stuijt and Hannah Sulz.

Cam Kincaid and Catherine Orfanos, freshmen when the Carter/Gbadamosi/Pelchat threesome was seniors, will be entering their final year next fall when Bostrom, Maher and Ronney arrive. Lidia Dukic and Nathalie Joanlanne will be juniors in 2017-18.

"All those successes we had in the past, it took time to refocus as we worked through some other issues," said Ascher.

"This new group wants to be here. I'm very honest with them, about the hard schedule we play and what we expect out of them, and none of them backed off. I'm excited about where they want to go."

University of Montana Athletics

Players Mentioned

Anabel Carbo

Lidia Dukic

Nathalie Joanlanne

Cam Kincaid

Catherine Orfanos

Stanzi Stuijt

Hannah Sulz

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