Montana opens spring trip against #5 Oklahoma State

Montana opens spring trip against #5 Oklahoma State

They say to be the best you have to beat the best, and the Montana men's tennis team will get the opportunity to do just that on Friday, March 17, when the Griz face fifth-ranked Oklahoma State at 5 p.m. (MT) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Montana's match against the Cowboys – who were a national quarterfinalist in 2016 - kicks off a four-match spring break tour of the southwest for UM.

In addition to OSU, the Griz (7-3, 3-2 BSC) will face more strong competition in UNLV on Saturday at the Rebel's Frank and Vicki Fertitta Tennis Complex, before heading to Phoenix to face Grand Canyon and Arizona Christian on Monday and Tuesday, March 20 and 21.

Heading into the trip, veteran Montana head coach Kris Nord wanted to find opponents to test his team before the business end of the Big Sky season rolls around, and with OSU (13-3, 0-0 Big 12), he succeeded.

"They're really good, to say the least," said Nord of the Cowboys, who have seen success against a who's who of college tennis so far this season. "Oklahoma State will be the best team we see and have seen since Oklahoma in the NCAAs a couple of years ago. They're loaded, which is fun."

The Cowboys enter the St. Patrick's Day match ranked as the No. 1 team in the ITA Central Region, stocked with six of the top-20 singles players in the region and the No. 1 doubles pair in the region as well.

"If you want to go and make a little noise, you go play well against an Oklahoma State. That's kind of the carrot we dangle in front of the guys," said Nord. "We always want to win, but there isn't the pressure of conference matches, so our guys get to work on some things and kind of free-roll against teams like this," added Nord.

With the pressure of Big Sky results out of play, Montana will take the opportunity to hone individual skills against some of the nation's finest.

"I think the experience could be super useful before heading back and playing conference schools. If we get some wins we could get on a good roll and keep cruising through the rest of the season," said Grizzly freshman Max Korkh, who will get his first taste of college competition against a nationally ranked opponent.

"It's going to be some serious tennis, and I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it."

UNLV (8-2, 0-0 Mountain West) will also field a strong team on their home court, boasting a pair of singles players ranked in the ITA Mountain Region's top-five.

UNLV isn't an unfamiliar foe, however. When the Griz faced the Rebels on last year's spring trip, Victor Casadevall came away with a win on the No. 3 singles court in UM's 6-1 loss, defeating Ruben Alberts 6-3, 6-0.

The Griz picked up a singles win over the Rebels as well during this year's fall tournament season when Korkh defeated Charlie Croxford in a three-set marathon 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8) at the ITA Mountain Regionals.

UM also secured a doubles win over UNLV in the fall when the dynamic pairing of Yannick Schmidl and Alexander Canellopoulos beat the Rebel's Gage-Brown/Neto pairing 8-5 at the same tournament, giving the Griz plenty of reason to be confident this go-around after winning three of their last four matches.

Schmidl and Canellopoulos head south with two-straight doubles wins under their belts, and UM's best overall doubles record this year at 14-8. Canellopoulos says he's confident that momentum will help them on this week's trip.

"We communicate perfectly, and we both have a winning mentality, so it makes it easier to play with each other. We both like to win, that's what we do," said the sophomore from Greece.

In singles action, Canellopoulos is coming off what assistant coach Jason Brown called "perhaps his best match of the year," defeating Portland State's Abdo Yousef 6-0, 6-1 last week in Oregon, giving him momentum heading into this week's matches.

"I've had some good matches and kind of gotten on win streak. I feel more confident in my strokes, I've improved my serve and I just feel more confident going into matches, like I can go dominate," said Canellopoulos.

Casadevall could play spoiler in the desert as well. The Spaniard, who earned Montana's nomination for Big Sky Player of the Week last week, is riding a five-match win streak on the singles court, where he is 7-2 so far this spring.

That record could move him up the ladder to the No. 1 court as Nord shuffles the deck during the spring trip.

"We'll do a little tweaking with the lineup just to help get a real accurate gauge of all the guys," said Nord. "We have some options, and that's what we need so when we get into April we can have more depth."

While the trip to Las Vegas will present the Griz with their biggest challenge of the year, Nord is confident his team is ready for the task at hand if the team sticks to the game plan, which will prepare them for the tail end of the Big Sky season.

"I feel like our guys are settling in the groove of competition and not getting stressed out by it. Now we go make the small improvements in their games that will make the difference in a month," said Nord.

"I want them to go out there and be themselves. You can't be a different tennis player than you are and think you have to play super tennis. You have to play your tennis and play your A-game, or they'll take advantage of it quickly."

Montana returns to conference action on April 2 when the team travels to the Palouse to face Idaho in Moscow.

Stay tuned to GoGriz.com for recaps of the week's action.

Montana opens spring trip against #5 Oklahoma State

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Players Mentioned

Alex Canellopoulos

Victor Casadevall

Max Korkh

Yannick Schmidl

University of Montana Athletics