Griz finish strong at ITA Regionals

Wednesday, October 11

Salt Lake City, Utah

Montana

ITA Regional

10/16/2017 7:19:00 PM | Women's Tennis

FINAL RESULTS

By: Montana Sports Information

Julia Ronney continued to impress in her first season of collegiate tennis, picking up two victories and advancing to the round of 32 at the ITA Mountain Regional Tournament over the weekend at the University of Utah in Salt Lake.

Ronney led the Montana women's tennis team to the program's only win on the opening day of the tournament last Wednesday, but the Griz rebounded to finish with an 11-5 record on the final two days, finishing strong at 12-13 overall on the weekend.

"I think the most important thing is seeing when you hit a little bit of adversity, or get some results you don't particularly like, how do you respond," said head coach Steve Ascher. "I think that's a really good sign for things to come."

Ronney advanced to the round of 32 after picking up a favorable draw in the first round against Northern Colorado freshman Madeline Doherty, coming away with a 6-1, 6-4 victory.

The San Diego native then advanced to the Round of 32 breezing past the seeded Maria Tatarnikova from Nevada with a 6-2, 6-1 win.

Ronney's run came to an end in the round of 32 against Samantha Li from UNLV, falling 6-2, 6-3, proving she has the mettle to hang with the top players in the region.

"For me, it was a pretty big step in her development because she learned a really valuable lesson, and she wants it," said Ascher. "She's had some good results already, but she's eager to learn. I think that's the big thing is that internal drive to want to get better. It's what you want from all the players."

Ronney has already claimed a tournament championship during her first semester in Missoula, taking the orange bracket at the Idaho State Invitational to open the season. She also advanced to the consolation final at the Long Beach State tourney in Southern California.

In the doubles bracket, Montana dropped all three of its opening round matches.

Ronney and her partner, fellow freshman Eimear Maher pushed the Tavares/Spataro pair from Idaho to a tiebreaker before falling 8-7 (6).

Cam Kincaid and Bianca Bostrom dropped a tough match to Utah State's Pisareva/Jones pair 8-1 in the opening round, and the Nathalie Joanlanne and Catherine Orfanos pair fell to the Wantabe/Chen pair from Idaho.

After four-straight weeks on the road, Montana now turns its attention to the Boise State Invitational Oct. 27-29, the final event of the fall tournament season. Ascher says his team's big rebound at regionals is proof positive the Griz are heading in the right direction with an eye on the Big Sky Conference season in the spring.

"We haven't had a chance to settle down and actually work on things, but they're getting a ton of match experience, a ton of time to be around each other and push each other and grow as a team, so that's a lot of good things," Ascher said.

"After Boise, we'll have a really nice stretch to push ourselves, develop our strengths, develop our athleticism, and work on individual things in people's games, which I love to do."