Griz storm the Beach

Last week, the Montana women's tennis team headed east to the shores of Lake Michigan to compete in Northwestern University's Wildcat Invite.

This week, the Griz head to the left coast to compete in the Beach Tennis Fall Tournament at Long Beach State University in Southern California.

Suiting up for the Griz at Long Beach is the half of the team that missed out on the trip to Chicago last week. Senior Cam Kincaid leads the trip along with three freshmen: Eimear Maher, Julia Ronney, and Bianca Bostrom.

Other teams competing alongside the Griz at LBSU's Rhodes Tennis Center are Grand Canyon, Loyola Marymount, Portland State, Washington State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Northridge, UC Irvine and UC Riverside.

"There are some really good teams down there," said head coach Steve Ascher. "It's the last chance to get some more match experience and match toughness as we move toward the regionals at Utah next week."

Just as last week's tourney in Chicago was a homecoming of sorts for Catherine Orfanos, this week's trip marks the first return to So-Cal for San Diego native Julia Ronney.

Ronney will return home looking to follow up on her championship performance in week one at the Idaho State Invitational where she ran the table to win the "Orange Draw" singles competition in her colligate debut.

"She had some nice results at Idaho State, and this is a tier up in terms of the level of competition," said Ascher. "This is just a continuation of getting her used to the college setting."

Fall is the developmental season on the collegiate tennis calendar, and this weekend's matches will provide plenty of opportunity for Grizzly self-analysis.

Even though Ronney has experience on the California junior tennis circuit, with three first-year players on the trip, Ascher will focus on the fundamentals ahead of the regional tournament in Salt Lake.

"What I'm always looking for is: how do they see the game? How do they produce points? How do they handle the pressure moments? That's our focus. We focus on foundation, foundation, foundation constantly," said Ascher.

Maher also saw success at the Idaho State Invitational last week in her collegiate debut. The native of Newbridge, Ireland, was a co-champion of one of the consolation brackets alongside teammate Nathalie Joanlanne.

The tournament features two rounds of doubles on Friday, Oct. 5, with one round of singles play mixed in, then two singles rounds Saturday with one round of doubles, and finally a single round of both singles and doubles to decide the tournament winners in each flight on Sunday, Oct. 8.

Each day of competition will start with doubles play, starting at 10 a.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

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Players Mentioned

Bianca Bostrom

Nathalie Joanlanne

Cam Kincaid

Eimear Maher

Catherine Orfanos

Julia Ronney

University of Montana Athletics