Griz set for key Big Sky match at Idaho

After a spring break trip to the desert facing some of the region's, and indeed the nation's top teams, the Montana men's tennis squad returns to Big Sky Conference action this weekend with a trip to the Palouse to face the Idaho Vandals.

Action from Moscow is scheduled to get underway at 3 p.m. (MT) on Sunday, April 2. Weather could play a factor, however. Should the outdoor courts at Idaho be rained out, action will be moved down to the indoor courts at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho.

At 3-2 in league play (8-6 overall) the Griz enter the match sitting at No. 6 on the conference table with the Vandals just one place ahead of them at No. 5 at 4-2 (9-6 overall).

With only five Big Sky matches remaining on this season's schedule, Montana is looking to secure a top-six seed in the standings and a trip to Phoenix for the Conference Championship.

Standing in the way are the Vandals, who have put up some impressive results in nonconference action, including a 4-2 win over Grand Canyon, who beat the Griz 6-1 in Arizona over spring break and a narrow loss to league leaders Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

"Idaho is real talented. In my mind, they're right there with NAU in terms of who is favored to win the conference right now," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

"They're a lot like us in some ways. A very solid team, and we've just got to go play well, not play cautious or nervous, just go out with a little edge and bring our A-game."

With one of the most challenging conference matches of the season on the horizon, the Griz will into Sunday's play fresh off a road trip to the desert where they faced the nation's No. 4 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, providing a learning experience to draw from against Idaho.

"After that match, we sat down and talked about how solid they were in the big points," said Montana senior Peter Mimnagh-Fleming.

"Everyone on our team is good technically, and we hit as good a ball as them, but they just do it for longer, and they trust themselves more in those important situations, and that's what we need to do,"

"We've been focusing this week on match intensity at practice. We all hit the shots; it's just a matter of doing it every day," he added.

A win over the Vandals would put Montana in the driver's seat for a top six finish in league play, and for Coach Nord, the Griz will have to be solid from top to bottom in their lineup to take the win, and take cues from the lessons learned on the spring break trip.

"We came out of the outdoor trip thinking: it's nothing fancy. It goes back to what we were focusing on last fall which is being better at hitting heavy neutral balls and not trying to win the point, but not setting yourself up to lose the point. It's real basic in tennis. It's: don't make mistakes and keep the ball deep. If we do that, we'll hang with anybody," added Nord.

Montana will have its hands full with Idaho's Mark Kovacs, who is No. 3 in the conference on court one singles at 9-4 this season.

Likely to take Kovaks on head to head is UM's Yannick Schmidl, who has seen the most action on court one this season, sitting at a resilient 4-4.

But over the four-match spring trip to Nevada and Arizona, Victor Casadevall made the step up to the No. 1 court for the first time in his career, picking up a win against Arizona Christian.

Also set to play a big role in beating Idaho is Grizzly newcomer Ignacio Tejerina, who is a combined 9-1 on courts five and six so far this spring, and 5-1 in Big Sky play, adding strength to the bottom of UM's lineup.

"Our lower doubles and lower singles lineup really needs to shine. Simple as that. That's where we've won our matches in the past. We've got to have the lower lineup win and pull out some good performances up top. Idaho's very strong up top, and we know that, but we have guys that can go win up there also," said Nord.

After Sunday's match in Idaho, the Griz return home for a crucial Big Sky homestand against No. 4 Sacramento State on April 7 and No. 7 Idaho State on April 8, needing wins to keep hopes of a top-six finish alive.

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Players Mentioned

Victor Casadevall

Peter Mimnagh-Fleming

Yannick Schmidl

Ignacio Tejerina

University of Montana Athletics