Griz play up as Ascher nears milestone

Sunday, March 25

Logan, Utah

10 AM

Montana

Utah State

3/23/2018 12:44:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Notes Utah State Live Stats Boise State Live Stats

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana women's tennis team opens its spring break trip with a pair of regional matches against teams from the Mountain West, as the Griz head south to face Utah State and Boise State on the first leg of a week-long road trip.

The first stop on the tour sees the Griz (6-8, 2-3 BSC) stop in Logan to take on the USU Aggies (9-8, 0-0 MW) on Sunday, March 25, at 10 a.m. Montana then hits the road for Boise to take on the Broncos (7-6, 1-0 MW) on Tuesday, March 27, at 11 a.m. Fans can track the results of both matches via live stats, with links available at GoGriz.com.

The young Grizzlies – who have had true freshman filling three of the six slots in the lineup with regularity this season – are seeking consistency while playing up this week after taking a solid 6-1 win over North Dakota, then suffering a disappointing 7-0 loss to Sacramento State last week.

While Montana has already doubled the number of wins it tallied all of last season, the Griz are looking to climb back to the upper echelon of the Big Sky Conference and win a league championship for the first time since 2014.

If that is to happen, now is the time to start.

"We have to start handling every match we play as if it's a match at the conference championship. If we can continue to mature in that aspect and handle each match with a little more focus, concentration, and hunger, things will go your way," said head coach Steve Ascher.

"We've got to put value on every single match, and I think by doing that our approach doesn't vary match-to-match. We have to level it out."

Montana's coach may provide his squad a little extra motivation this week with a career milestone just around the corner. Ascher is on the cusp of earning his 100^th win as head coach of the Grizzlies, needing just one more W to hit the century mark.

The two-time Big Sky Coach of the Year is currently 99-116 as the Grizzly mentor. While wins on the court are important, he's also led his team six ITA All-Academic Team Awards and has placed 29 ITA Scholar Athletes and 37 Academic All-Big Sky players, numbers he values nearly as much.

Also there to motivate the Griz this week: testing themselves against the best.

In the last two weeks, both Utah State and Boise State have had a star player named Mountain West Conference Player of the Week.

On March 14, USU sophomore Hannah Jones earned weekly honors after leading the Aggies to wins over UC Riverside and Seton Hall, winning all of her singles matches in straight-sets on court five.

As a freshman, Jones set a new single-season Utah State record with 29 singles wins, posting a 29-8 overall record.

A week later, BSU freshman Wilhelmina Palmer earned her first career nod from the Mountain West after helping lead the Broncos to a win over Air Force on court one, and tallying a 3-0 record overall on the week.

GRIZ NOTES
Montana has three players who have crossed the seven-win barrier in dual matches so far this season.

Freshman Eimear Maher has quietly built the team's best overall record at 7-4, winning seven of her last nine outings and anchoring the bottom of the Grizzly lineup with a 1-0 record on court five, and 6-4 on court six.

Senior Cam Kincaid has been the steadfast leader for the Griz at 7-7. Over the last five matches, Kincaid has gone 3-2, with the two losses both coming down to third-set nail-biters. Along with her partner Bianca Bostrom, Kincaid has also picked up two-straight wins on doubles court one at 3-2 in Big Sky play.

Bostrom has also been rock-solid for the Griz at the bottom of the singles lineup, winning seven of her last nine singles matches.

Junior Nathalie Joanlanne has also provided a spark for the Griz on court two for the majority of the season, going the entire month of February without a loss and winning seven of her last nine as well.

LOOKING AHEAD
The second leg of the spring-break trip will see the Griz return to the Wasatch Front to resume Big Sky play against Weber State on Wednesday March 28, followed by another conference match at Idaho State on Friday, March 30.