Griz netters open spring season at Utah

Saturday, February 6

Salt Lake City, Utah

Noon

Montana

Utah

Photo by: Todd Goodrich

2/5/2016 2:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: gogriz.com

The Montana men's tennis team knocks the lid off the spring tennis season on Saturday, facing potentially their toughest opponent of the year, the Utah Utes, in a Big Sky Conference tune up.

COVERAGE: Fans can keep pace with the results from the Eccles Tennis Center in Salt Lake via Live Stats, and get a complete post-match recap at gogriz.com.

THE CHALLENGE AHEAD: After returning to the UM campus in late January following a long Christmas break, the Griz have been in preparation mode to return to the top of the Big Sky Conference table, where they finished third in last season's tournament.

"Our guys came back in very good shape, which was probably our first concern after losing them for six weeks. I was happy with that," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

There's nothing quite like a tough challenge to find out where a team stands before league play starts, and the Utes will give the Grizzlies just that.

Utah is currently chasing a school record for its best start to a season in the lead up to the Pac-12 schedule, jumping out to a 7-0 nonconference record, and running over four Big Sky teams in the process. Utah has defeated Sacramento State (4-1), Idaho State (6-1), Northern Arizona (6-0), and Weber State (6-2) in Big Sky opponents so far this spring.

"They're very talented, but we're trying to get a mindset of taking the guys down there and telling them we have to play good tennis, but they don't have to go out of character and do something fantastic," added Nord. "We have to go play solid tennis, as they know how to play it, and not over react to playing a good team."

Montana will send eight of its top players to Utah for the season-opening litmus test. Leading the Griz will be seniors Tomasz Soltyka and Semion Branzburg and junior Peter Mimnagh-Fleming, providing the upperclassmen leadership on a young Griz squad. Sophomores Yannick Schmidl, Victor Casadevall and Zach Fisher will make the trip south for UM, along with freshman standouts Petar Barcot and Alexander Canellopoulos.

LEADING THE GRIZ: The Griz caught glimpses of the Utes during the fall season at the Montana State Invitational in Bozeman, and at the ITA Mountain Regionals in Albuquerque. Montana was able to pull out a couple of wins against the Utes, but posted an overall record of 3-8 in one-off singles and doubles matches.

Wins for the Griz last fall include: Soltyka defeating Freddy McGeehan in the consolation rounds at the ITA Regionals, and Schmidl defeating LP Gascon in Bozeman, along with a doubles win for UM's Mimnagh-Fleming/Soltyka doubles pairing over Utah's Jonhagen/Swiggert pair.

SCOUTING THE UTES: Santiago Sierra, a sophomore from Mexico City, is currently on top of Utah's win table, posting an undefeated 7-0 mark this spring. True freshman Dan Little came in second at the ITA Regionals in Albuquerque, falling to the No. 2-seeded Diogo Rocha of Denver University in three sets in the final.

LAST MEETING: This time last year, the Griz were just two games shy of claiming the doubles point after Soltyka and Mimnagh-Fleming posted a 6-2 victory at the No. 1 doubles spot, but were eventually undone in the No. 2 doubles spot with a narrow 7-5 loss for the Branzburg and Schmidl pairing.

Grizzly freshman Alexandr Rudenco defeated Santiago Sierra in the No. 5 spot, while Schmidl, then a newcomer, claimed a victory over Utah freshman Johan Jonhagen at No. 6, as the Griz eventually fell to the Utes 5-2.

The first serve from Salt Lake takes place at noon. Utah will face off against Montana State later that afternoon. The Grizzlies will get a crack at the Bobcats two weeks down the line on Feb. 20 in Bozeman in the team's next action of the spring.

In the Big Sky Conference preseason coaches' poll, the Griz are picked to finish in third place, where they left off last season.