Saturday, February 23
Salt Lake City, Utah
5 PM
Montana
at
Utah
Griz to test themselves against Utah and Marquette in Salt Lake
2/21/2019 1:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis
After picking up a win in its first Big Sky Conference match of the year, the Montana men's tennis team heads south this week for a pair of challenging nonconference tune-ups before returning to league play.
And when we say challenging, we mean this could be the most difficult weekend of the season.
The Griz (3-3, 1-0 BSC) head to Salt Lake City to take on a Utah Utes team that sits at 8-3 on the year and is coming off big wins over No. 35 Miami (Fla.) and New Mexico. Montana will then turn around and face the defending Big East Conference champion Marquette Golden Eagles (5-4) in a neutral site dual.
Following a win at Northern Colorado and some encouraging performances against Abilene Christian and Air Force, head coach Jason Brown sees the weekend in Utah as having no downside for the Griz as they look to sharpen up before returning to Big Sky action.
"Utah is a difficult place to play, but we're just looking at this as another opportunity to go get better against good teams. It's all upside for us as long as we go and leave it all on the court," said Brown.
"I'm convinced after our early season results that our tennis is good enough to push anyone. If we play as well as we can, I think we'll make things interesting for both teams."
THE LINEUP: Montana opens the weekend against the Utes with its first night match of the season on Saturday, Feb. 23, with first serves going up at 5 p.m. in Utah's Eccles Tennis Center.
The Griz will then have a short turnaround time before taking on Marquette at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, Feb. 24.
COVERAGE: Utah will provide a live video stream of the action on each court for both matches from the Eccles Tennis Center. Links to the stream are available at GoGriz.com.
GRIZ TRACKS: Entering the season, Montana took the court with just three upperclassmen to lead a group of six freshmen, leaving plenty of unknowns despite a solid fall tournament showing.
Now six matches into the year, the Grizzlies know at least one of those freshmen came to play.
Oisin Shaffrey enters the weekend at Utah on a five-match win streak, including wins over Montana State, Abilene Christian, and Air Force. He's been a rock-solid performer at the four and five positions with a 5-1 record, with his only loss coming at the season opener at Gonzaga.
It turns out that loss at Gonzaga may have been just the thing the ultra-competitive Irishman needed to spark his win streak.
"I don't know if I've ever seen a guy as upset after losing his first college match. He acted like it was completely unacceptable," said Brown.
"I tried to let him off the hook a little because it was a tough match. He was having none of it. He thought it was completely unacceptable, and since then, he's proven it is."
QUICK HITS
• UM's pair of standout brothers Ludvig and Pontus Hallgren continue to be steady for the Griz, entering the weekend at Utah with a 3-2 record as a doubles pair.
• Older brother Ludvig Hallgren went 2-1 on the recent trip to Colorado, picking up a pair of wins on court two over UNC and Air Force, and falling in his first-ever match on court one against Abilene Christian.
• Pontus Hallgren has been another of Montana's most consistent freshmen, heading into the weekend with a 3-2 singles record on court six. Hallgren had a shot at playing the hero against Air Force in a three-set marathon where he fell just short of giving the Griz the win, 6-4, 1-6, 3-6.
• Another of Montana's six freshmen picked up his first career win last week, with Milo Benn defeating Abilene Christian's Joaquin Delgado in straight sets (7-5, 6-2).
• Whitefish native and Griz freshman Finn Anderson also saw the first action of his career at UM against the Wildcats, falling in a tight third-set tiebreaker 6-3, 3-6, 0-1 (9-11).
• Montana's 3-4 loss to Air Force was one for the ages. With five of the six singles matches going three sets (and the sixth going to a second-set tiebreaker), the match was the longest in Air Force history, clocking in at a whopping 4 hours, 45 minutes.
• The Grizzlies currently sit in first place in the Big Sky standings as the only team who has yet to lose a league match.
SCOUTING UTAH: The Utes enter the weekend led by the defending Pac-12 Player of the Week Dan Little, who is currently ranked No. 42 player in the nation.
Little is riding a five-match win streak that includes victories over No. 13 ranked Adria Soriano of Miami, No. 89 Kareem Allaf of Iowa, and No. 35 Ricky Hernandez-Tong of New Mexico. His last loss was on Feb. 2, and it came at the hands of a player from the Big Sky Conference – Northern Arizona's Tim Handel.
At 8-3 overall, the Utes sit in fourth place overall on the Pac-12 standings this week. Their eight wins include wins over Miami (Fla.) and New Mexico, but five of the others have been against Big Sky schools Weber State, Montana State, Northern Arizona twice, and Idaho State.
SCOUTING MARQUETTE: The Golden Eagles won their first-ever Big East championship in 2018, defeating DePaul 4-1 in the league championship to advance to the NCAA tournament where they lost to No. 9 Illinois in the first round.
Following that historic season, current senior Alvaro Verdu was named the BIG EAST Player of the Year and head coach Steve Rodecap and his staff also won BIG EAST coaching staff of the year.
UP NEXT: Montana returns to Big Sky play on March 1 when it heads to Oregon to face Portland State, followed by a match against the Portland Pilots on March 2. The Griz then return home for key Big Sky matches against Northern Arizona and Weber State on March 9 and 10.
And when we say challenging, we mean this could be the most difficult weekend of the season.
The Griz (3-3, 1-0 BSC) head to Salt Lake City to take on a Utah Utes team that sits at 8-3 on the year and is coming off big wins over No. 35 Miami (Fla.) and New Mexico. Montana will then turn around and face the defending Big East Conference champion Marquette Golden Eagles (5-4) in a neutral site dual.
Following a win at Northern Colorado and some encouraging performances against Abilene Christian and Air Force, head coach Jason Brown sees the weekend in Utah as having no downside for the Griz as they look to sharpen up before returning to Big Sky action.
"Utah is a difficult place to play, but we're just looking at this as another opportunity to go get better against good teams. It's all upside for us as long as we go and leave it all on the court," said Brown.
"I'm convinced after our early season results that our tennis is good enough to push anyone. If we play as well as we can, I think we'll make things interesting for both teams."
THE LINEUP: Montana opens the weekend against the Utes with its first night match of the season on Saturday, Feb. 23, with first serves going up at 5 p.m. in Utah's Eccles Tennis Center.
The Griz will then have a short turnaround time before taking on Marquette at 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, Feb. 24.
COVERAGE: Utah will provide a live video stream of the action on each court for both matches from the Eccles Tennis Center. Links to the stream are available at GoGriz.com.
GRIZ TRACKS: Entering the season, Montana took the court with just three upperclassmen to lead a group of six freshmen, leaving plenty of unknowns despite a solid fall tournament showing.
Now six matches into the year, the Grizzlies know at least one of those freshmen came to play.
Oisin Shaffrey enters the weekend at Utah on a five-match win streak, including wins over Montana State, Abilene Christian, and Air Force. He's been a rock-solid performer at the four and five positions with a 5-1 record, with his only loss coming at the season opener at Gonzaga.
It turns out that loss at Gonzaga may have been just the thing the ultra-competitive Irishman needed to spark his win streak.
"I don't know if I've ever seen a guy as upset after losing his first college match. He acted like it was completely unacceptable," said Brown.
"I tried to let him off the hook a little because it was a tough match. He was having none of it. He thought it was completely unacceptable, and since then, he's proven it is."
#GrizTennis freshman Oisin Shaffrey has won 5 of his first 6 college matches ... 😳
— Montana Griz Tennis 🎾 (@MontanaGrizTEN) February 20, 2019
Get to know this Ireland native in the latest installment of the #CouchbytheCourts! 🇮🇪☘️#GoGriz pic.twitter.com/jXBZh14PP2
QUICK HITS
• UM's pair of standout brothers Ludvig and Pontus Hallgren continue to be steady for the Griz, entering the weekend at Utah with a 3-2 record as a doubles pair.
• Older brother Ludvig Hallgren went 2-1 on the recent trip to Colorado, picking up a pair of wins on court two over UNC and Air Force, and falling in his first-ever match on court one against Abilene Christian.
• Pontus Hallgren has been another of Montana's most consistent freshmen, heading into the weekend with a 3-2 singles record on court six. Hallgren had a shot at playing the hero against Air Force in a three-set marathon where he fell just short of giving the Griz the win, 6-4, 1-6, 3-6.
• Another of Montana's six freshmen picked up his first career win last week, with Milo Benn defeating Abilene Christian's Joaquin Delgado in straight sets (7-5, 6-2).
• Whitefish native and Griz freshman Finn Anderson also saw the first action of his career at UM against the Wildcats, falling in a tight third-set tiebreaker 6-3, 3-6, 0-1 (9-11).
• Montana's 3-4 loss to Air Force was one for the ages. With five of the six singles matches going three sets (and the sixth going to a second-set tiebreaker), the match was the longest in Air Force history, clocking in at a whopping 4 hours, 45 minutes.
• The Grizzlies currently sit in first place in the Big Sky standings as the only team who has yet to lose a league match.
SCOUTING UTAH: The Utes enter the weekend led by the defending Pac-12 Player of the Week Dan Little, who is currently ranked No. 42 player in the nation.
Little is riding a five-match win streak that includes victories over No. 13 ranked Adria Soriano of Miami, No. 89 Kareem Allaf of Iowa, and No. 35 Ricky Hernandez-Tong of New Mexico. His last loss was on Feb. 2, and it came at the hands of a player from the Big Sky Conference – Northern Arizona's Tim Handel.
At 8-3 overall, the Utes sit in fourth place overall on the Pac-12 standings this week. Their eight wins include wins over Miami (Fla.) and New Mexico, but five of the others have been against Big Sky schools Weber State, Montana State, Northern Arizona twice, and Idaho State.
SCOUTING MARQUETTE: The Golden Eagles won their first-ever Big East championship in 2018, defeating DePaul 4-1 in the league championship to advance to the NCAA tournament where they lost to No. 9 Illinois in the first round.
Following that historic season, current senior Alvaro Verdu was named the BIG EAST Player of the Year and head coach Steve Rodecap and his staff also won BIG EAST coaching staff of the year.
UP NEXT: Montana returns to Big Sky play on March 1 when it heads to Oregon to face Portland State, followed by a match against the Portland Pilots on March 2. The Griz then return home for key Big Sky matches against Northern Arizona and Weber State on March 9 and 10.
Players Mentioned
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