Montana women in San Diego to cap fall season

The Montana women's tennis team will wrap up the fall tournament season this weekend with its stiffest competition of the year at the San Diego State Fall Classic.

The Griz will be competing in a nine-team field at SDSU's Aztec Tennis Center, with five nationally ranked players in the draws, as well as three players from the defending National Champion Stanford Cardinal.

In addition to the home team, the Griz and Stanford, Air Force will be competing, along with Denver, Drake, UC Irvine, Eastern Washington, and Northern Colorado.

Play at the three-day, six-bracket tourney at gets underway at 9 a.m. (PT) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with doubles draws beginning each day's play. Results will be uploaded to the tournament website at the end of each day.

Coming off an impressive set of results at the ITA Mountain Regional that saw three Grizzlies advance to the round of 16, Montana is looking to culminate the fall season playing its best tennis of the year.

"It's going to be great to get outside this time of year and compete against some really high-level competition. This is why you play. It's fantastic," said UM head coach Steve Ascher.

"It's exciting because we've had two months with the team now, so everyone should be firing on all cylinders. It will be awesome to see everyone competing at their best."

Montana's returning first-team All-Big Sky performer Julia Ronney leads the Grizzlies into her hometown tournament, opening singles play against the No. 96-ranked Anna Reidmiller from Denver in the White bracket.

A win there could see her advance to face Stanford's No. 93-ranked Niluka Madurawe, who opens on the same side of the bracket.

Ronney has been red-hot this fall, taking wins over opponents from Utah State and BYU at the ITA Regional.

Her and the Griz will have more than momentum on their side when they take the court Friday, however, with a Grizzly-partisan crowd expected to be in attendance.

"Julia's parents are hosting the team this week, which is awesome, we have other players' families coming to watch, and even some alumni coming as well. I feel like it's going to be a bit of a home-court environment," said Ascher.

Also set to compete for the Griz are fab freshman duo Olivia Oosterbann and Maria Goheen, sophomores Lauren Dunlap and Claudia Reguant, and junior Bianca Bostrom. Sophomore Alex Walker will also compete in a round-robin bracket on the side.

Links to daily results updates from San Diego can be found at GoGriz.com.

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Players Mentioned

Bianca Bostrom

Lauren Dunlap

Maria Goheen

Claudia Reguant

Julia Ronney

Alex Walker

University of Montana Athletics