Weber State coming to town

The Montana women's tennis team, off since playing at Portland State on March 26, will play a single match this week, hosting Weber State on Saturday morning.

The Grizzlies (2-15, 1-5 BSC) will face the Wildcats (1-13, 1-4 BSC) at 9 a.m. at the Peak Racquet Club.

The match will break a 12-day hiatus from competition for Montana, which had played every week since early February before getting a breather last weekend.

"We'd been going and traveling for I don't even know how many weekends in a row up to that point. We were just grinding," said coach Steve Ascher.

"Just having that weekend off, in terms of a mental health break, was fantastic. It was super restorative. Practices on Monday and Tuesday were fantastic."

Montana and Weber State will be meeting for the only time this season on Saturday, but the players are not strangers to one another.

The teams played 17 head-to-head singles matches and 12 doubles matches last fall, squaring off at both the BYU Invitational in September and Weber State Invitational in October.

The Grizzlies went 7-10 against the Wildcats in singles, 4-8 in doubles.

Weber State was picked a strong fourth in the Big Sky Conference preseason poll after making the semifinals of the Big Sky tournament last spring. But entering championship month, the Wildcats are one of three teams, along with Montana and Portland State, with a single Big Sky win.

"I don't know where they're at, based on their record, but they are talented. In terms of talent, they are right up there," said Ascher.

"You don't know which team is going to show up. As a team, you have to be ready for an opponent to be at its best. If they are, that's what we'll be prepared for. If they're not, maybe we can take advantage of that."

Five matches into its league schedule, Weber State is 1-4, with a 4-3 home-court victory over Portland State its lone win. The Wildcats lost at home to North Dakota and Northern Colorado, and on the road at Sacramento State and Idaho State.

Montana has played the same five opponents -- plus Southern Utah -- and lost to all five, with 4-3 losses to Sacramento State, Northern Colorado and Portland State on the road.

Neither team is in a favorable position to make the six-team Big Sky tournament, not with a minimum of four wins required already.

After facing the Wildcats on Saturday, the Grizzlies play Montana State, Northern Arizona and Idaho, three teams that are currently 18-0 in league, then close with Eastern Washington, which defeated Montana twice last season.

"I've seen some really nice improvements in the players' games," said Ascher. "We have a few more matches where we can continue to show that. I'm excited to see how that works under stressful situations and what happens going forward."

Saturday's match will be the fourth of five home matches for Montana this season. The Grizzlies opened their home schedule with matches against Idaho State, Southern Utah and Boise State last month, all in a three-day window.

While fatigue may come into play in that type of situation, Ascher actually prefers that type of scheduling to a single-match weekend, like his team has this week.

"No matter what you do, whether it's skiing three days in a row, mountain biking, whatever it is, the third day you're a little more fatigued, but the flip side of that is you feel your sport so much better," he said.

"It's the same with tennis. You just get more confident because of how you feel the ball. If you're engaged multiple days in a row, your learning curve just shoots up. But it's also nice to know you can focus everything on one match and put it all on the line, like this weekend."

Montana will play at Montana State and host Northern Arizona next week, then wrap up the regular season with road matches at Idaho and Eastern Washington.

The Grizzlies' most recent matches were both 4-3 losses on the road, at Northern Colorado and Portland State. Three of Montana's five league losses have come by scores of 4-3, as did its lone win over Southern Utah.

Four of Montana's players have records of .500 or better in league, with Nathalie Joanlanne leading the way at 5-1 while playing No. 4 singles. Her only Big Sky loss came against North Dakota in the Grizzlies' league opener back on Feb. 17, giving her a five-match winning streak against conference opponents.

Lidia Dukic is 4-2 at No. 2, Catherine Orfanos is 3-3 at No. 3, and Cam Kincaid is 2-1 at No. 5 and 6.

Montana has won the doubles point just twice this season, against Northern Iowa and Sacramento State, in 16 matches against Division I competition.

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Players Mentioned

Lidia Dukic

Nathalie Joanlanne

Cam Kincaid

Catherine Orfanos

University of Montana Athletics