Griz look for another strong effort at Wildcat Invite

"It was a perfect start."

That's how Ludvig Hallgren summed up the opening weekend of the Montana men's tennis fall tournament season after the Griz swept the singles brackets of the Eastern Washington Fall Classic.

The weekend was an even bigger success for the Grizzlies considering all six freshmen on the nine-man squad got their first taste of college tennis, with Oisin Shaffrey even pulling out a win in the B draw and junior Max Korkh winning the A singles draw.

Now, It's on to the next one.

"I think everyone competed well, and the freshmen competed really well in their first college tournament," said Hallgren.

"We want to do the same thing this week, sweep the singles title and doubles titles. But most importantly we want to go out and compete really well again. There will be some better teams, and we're ready to go compete."

The Grizzlies travel to Ogden, Utah, this week for their second tournament of the fall season at Weber State's Wildcat Invite, Friday, Sept. 28 – Sunday, Sept. 30.

Montana will enter the tournament as a strong contender to pick up another title at the six-team Wildcat Invite and will get the chance to test themselves early against teams they will see in the spring.

Set to appear in Ogden are Air Force, Idaho State, Montana State, Southern Utah, and host Weber State – all of which the Griz will face during the duals season as they attempt to work their way back to the Big Sky Championship Tournament for the 29th-straight year.

Play got underway at Weber's Edman Tennis Courts at 9 a.m. on Friday, with the first of two doubles draw, followed by a pair of singles draws.

With such a young team, one of the main highlights for head coach Jason Brown is the fact everyone will get in at least four singles and three doubles matches, giving all nine players plenty of reps.

Along to assist Brown this week are former Griz first-team All-Big Sky standouts Victor Casadevall and Yannick Schmidl who are both back at UM finishing their degrees.

Despite last week's success and the added assistance, Brown is not letting the cart go before the horse when it comes to expectations.

"We had a great start to the season, but we know we still have a lot to work on," said Brown. "I want the guys to go compete as hard as possible, show some growth, and it will be a positive experience for us."

Following the Wildcat Invite, the Grizzlies will face their toughest competition of the season as UM travels to Boise for the Dar Walters Classic the first weekend of October, featuring some of the strongest programs in the region.

Griz look for another strong effort at Wildcat Invite

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Players Mentioned

Victor Casadevall

Ludvig Hallgren

Max Korkh

Yannick Schmidl

Oisin Shaffrey

University of Montana Athletics