Griz riding momentum into pair of home matches

After nearly a month on the road that included one big conference win and a pair of near-misses against Mountain West opponents, the Montana men's tennis team returns home with momentum this week as it heads into the business end of the season.

With just five matches left before the Big Sky tournament, the Grizzlies (6-10, 3-2 BSC) will host Sacramento State (5-10, 3-2 BSC) and Idaho State (7-8, 4-2 BSC) in a pair of massive conference ties that could determine if UM earns its 29th-consecutive trip to the Big Sky championship tourney.

THE SCHEDULE: Montana will open its homestand against the perennial powerhouse Sac State Hornets on Thursday, April 4, with first serves going up at 11 a.m. on the indoor courts at the Peak Racquet Club south of Missoula.

Weather pending, the Griz will then finish the weekend on the outdoor courts at the Robert O. Lindsay Tennis Center on the UM campus against Idaho State on Saturday, April 6, with a scheduled noon start.

COVERAGE: Montana will provide live scoring for both matches, with links to the digital scoreboard available at GoGriz.com and GrizStats.com. A live video stream of court one singles and doubles will be available for both matches on the official Facebook page of Grizzly tennis: facebook.com/MontanaGrizTEN.

IMPLICATIONS: With less than a month to play in the Big Sky regular season, the race to clinch one of the top six places in the league standings and book a ticket to Phoenix is becoming more evident.

At 3-2, Montana sits in fourth place in this week's standings, tied with the Hornets, whom the Griz play on Thursday. At 4-2, the Bengals sit one spot ahead of the Griz and Hornets, tied for second with Southern Utah.

Led by the nationally ranked (No. 80) Tim Handel, undefeated Northern Arizona is shaping up to be the cream of the conference, having already clinched a tournament berth at 7-0 in league play.

A pair of wins this week for the Grizzlies - who have lost only one home match since 2017 - would help separate the logjam near the top of the standings in head-to-head deciders when the top six are selected.

GRIZ TRACKS: Fueled by an undefeated performance that would earn him Big Sky Player of the Week honors, senior Alex Canellopoulos and the Grizzlies return home this week following a pair of 2-4 losses in Las Vegas against Mountain West opponents UNLV and Boise State.

Canellopoulos swept his opponents in both doubles and singles, losing only six singles games over the course of the two matches while winning 24 games.

Aside from Canellopoulos' dominance, Montana came away from Vegas with an overall good feeling amongst the team after winning the doubles rounds in both matches as well. Doubles had been tagged an area of improvement for the Griz this spring, but as the winner of five of the last seven dubs points, it's turned into an area of strength.

The Griz proved they belong with some of the best in the West on their trip to Nevada and are also still buzzing from a big win at Idaho – the two-time defending Big Sky champs – two weeks ago. Now they'll take that confidence into this week's home matches.

"It lets us know we can compete at that kind of high level, and hopefully we can bring that into these conference matches coming up, which would be huge," said freshman Oisin Shaffrey, a breakout star for the Griz this season with the team's best record (10-6).

"We're just putting in the work in training, keeping our heads down, working hard, and hoping to get a couple W's to send us to the conference tournament."

With a total of six freshmen on the nine-man squad, the Griz are a night-and-day different squad from last year's Big Sky runner-up team that featured a pair of the best seniors ever to take the court at Montana.

But now as the season comes to a head, second-year coach Jason Brown has his young squad firing on all cylinders at just the right time.

"It's going to take great efforts, but I think we can play within ourselves and we can roll through the last half of the season. We're prepared, we're healthy, everyone is strong, we're ready," said Brown. "We've matured through the season, and it's go time. I'm excited."

LOOKING AHEAD: Montana's run to the Big Sky tourney doesn't end with this week's matches. The Griz return to the road for a pair of important league clashes the following week, heading to Eastern Washington (which currently sits at the bottom of the standings at 1-4) on April 14, followed by the Brawl of the Wild match on April 18.

UM will cap the regular season at home against the league's second-ranked SUU Thunderbirds on April 21.

All matches are free and open to the public.

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Players Mentioned

Alex Canellopoulos

Oisin Shaffrey

University of Montana Athletics