Griz men picked to win, women picked fifth in preseason tennis polls

The Montana men's tennis team has been picked to win its first regular-season Big Sky championship since 2012 while the Grizzly women were picked to come in fifth, the conference announced Thursday in its annual set of preseason polls.

Despite not having played in nearly a year, the league's coaches tabbed the Montana men to top the conference table, picking up 58 points and four first-place votes. Northern Arizona, 2019's conference champion, also picked up 58 points in voting to tie UM, but the Lumberjacks only received three first-place votes.

Led by All-Big Sky standout Julia Ronney, the Montana women landed in fifth place on the preseason conference poll with 30 points in the voting.

Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team on the ballot.

The Grizzly Men are reloaded in 2021 after running out to an 8-3 record last year before the pandemic canceled the season.

Head coach Jason Brown returns four of the team's top six players this season and has added four rising stars to the roster to strengthen his lineup. Chase Bartlett, a D-II All-American grad transfer, and Sam Nicholson, a top-10 U-18 player from the UK, are set to compete for the Griz in the spring, and talented freshmen Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin Nieto will also add depth to the lineup.

With juniors Pontus Hallgren, Ed Pudney, and Oisin Shaffrey returning to the fold in '21 after posting a combined 24-5 record last spring, Brown knows the team has the talent to compete but still has a long way to go before meeting the league's expectations.

"I honestly don't put a lot of stock in preseason polls. As flattering as it is for the other coaches to acknowledge we have put together the possibility of a good team, the truth is, the last time we had a conference tournament in 2019, NAU won it easily, and we lost in the 1st round. They are the clear favorites for us to catch no matter what the voting says," said Brown.

"The hope is that we take this information and realize if we outwork everyone in the Big Sky from this moment forward, stay focused, and improve each week, we can fulfill our potential this season and do something special."

Montana enters the season looking to make its 30th-straight trip to the Big Sky tournament. The Grizzlies last won the regular-season championship in 2012 and won the Big Sky tourney to advance to the NCAA tournament in 2014. The Griz have also made six appearances in the Big Sky championship match and 16 appearances in the tournament semifinal.

The Grizzly Women were one of the few programs in the entire country to get some action in during the fall semester, not as a team but as individuals competing in ITA Fall Circuit events.

The Griz didn't disappoint, either, with Ronney earning a main-draw win at the Salt Lake event and Olivia Oosterbaan advancing to a back-draw final at an event in Los Angeles.

Those results, paired with the addition of freshman Ivalya Mitkova to the lineup, have head coach Steve Ascher looking to build on the team's early success from 2020 this season, where the Griz picked up a 5-2 upset win over Grand Canyon prior to the season being canceled.

"It's hard to say what the conference will look like because we haven't been able to play for so long, but this seems similar to last year's poll and is about right.," said Ascher, whose Grizzlies were picked to finish sixth a year ago.

"Now we know where we are situated, and it's time to start climbing the table. We've waited for a long time, and now it's time to get going again. We're just excited to play."

The Big Sky tennis race will look different in 2021 as programs play a regionalized schedule. The league is split into north and south divisions to reduce travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference tournament will also be abbreviated, with the top-two finishers from each division advancing to Phoenix instead of the usual six-team tourney.

The Montana men open the 2021 season in Idaho with a pair of non-conference matches against Boise State and Grand Canyon on January 23 and 24. The women open the season with a pair of matches against Gonzaga in Spokane on January 15 and 17.

Big Sky Men's Tennis Preseason Poll

Rank	School – Points (1^st Place Votes)
T1	Montana – 58 (4)
T1	Northern Arizona – 58 (3)
3	Weber State – 49
4	Sacramento State – 39 (2)
5	Portland State – 36
6	Idaho – 28
7	Montana State – 24
8	Idaho State – 22
9	Eastern Washington – 10

Big Sky Women's Tennis Preseason Poll

Rank	School – Points (1^st Place Votes)
1	Northern Arizona – 62 (6)
2	Weber State – 55 (1)
3	Eastern Washington – 52 (2)
4	Idaho – 38
5	Montana – 30
6	Montana State – 27
7	Sacramento State – 26
8	Portland State – 18
9	Idaho State – 16

University of Montana Athletics

Griz men picked to win, women picked fifth in preseason tennis polls

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Players Mentioned

Chase Bartlett

Pontus Hallgren

Guillermo Martin

Sam Nicholson

Olivia Oosterbaan

Ed Pudney

Julia Ronney

Oisin Shaffrey

Moritz Stoeger

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