Griz return to road to face LC State and Gonzaga

After dropping its Big Sky Conference-opener against Portland State, the Montana men's tennis team returns to action this week with everything left to play for in 2021's altered race to the championship tourney.

This season, the conference split its tennis teams into north and south regions, with only the top two teams from each booking a trip to Phoenix to compete for a league championship.

But before the Grizzlies hit the business end of the season with three-straight home matches that will determine whether or not they advance to the tourney, Montana returns to the road this week for three non-conference tune-ups.

UM will first travel to Lewiston, Idaho, for a Friday evening doubleheader against Lewis-Clark State, with the first match starting at 2 p.m. (MT) and the second getting underway at 6 p.m. (MT).

The Grizzlies then turn up the intensity at noon on Sunday, traveling north to Spokane for a one-off match against Gonzaga, who currently sits at No. 2 in the West Coast Conference standings. Links to live scoring and a live video feed of the Gonzaga match can be found at GoGriz.com.

"We have to make our own luck and or own opportunities. Teams are too good now to think they're going to make mistakes for us. We have to be a little more proactive in our approach," said head coach Jason Brown."

"This weekend is a perfect way to right the ship, hopefully, get some wins, and get feeling better about where we're at. I still believe it can all come together. The conference loss put us behind the eight ball a little bit with the shortened season, but I don't think it's anything we can't overcome. This is a veteran group, and spirits are still high. I think we'll be ok."

Montana enters the weekend at 3-8 on the season and reeling from four-straight losses, the last of which was a lackluster 1-6 loss to Portland State to start their Big Sky Schedule.

Now the Griz get the chance to go back in the win column against the NAIA Warriors (2-6) before testing themselves in what has become somewhat of a regional rivalry with the Zags (11-3).

The last time Montana and Gonzaga faced off was early February a year ago when UM came out hot with a win in the doubles round and took singles wins for Ed Pudney and Oisin Shaffrey to make it a tight 4-3 loss at the Stevens Tennis Center.

Pudney also won for the Griz at Gonzaga in 2019, when he and Max Korkh picked up two wins in a 5-2 loss for UM.

"We've had two really close matches with Gonzaga over the last two years," added Brown.

"It's a match the guys circle on the calendar, but we have to get better to make that happen. They're a very good team, but I think the guys are excited about the opportunity."

GRIZ TRACKS

• Shaffrey earned Montana's nomination for Big Sky Player of the Week last week after going 2-0 in singles on court two in matches against the University of Portland and Portland State.

The junior picked up a pair of quality straight-set wins over the Pilot's Eleftherios Neos and the Vikings Tommy Edwards.

Against Portland, Shaffrey got out to a strong start against Neos – who was the No. 3 ranked player in all of Cyprus, and won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017 – taking a 6-2 win in the first set and hanging on to win the second in a tiebreaker 7-6 (2).

Shaffrey played the spoiler against Portland State's Tommy Edwards on Sunday, sweeping the would-be winningest player in PSU history 6-3, 7-5 to improve to 5-5 overall on the season and keep Edwards from becoming a Viking record holder.

After going 9-2 in spring duals as a sophomore and 13-8 his freshman year, Shaffrey now sits at 27-15 overall, and 10-3 in Big Sky play in his career, with eight more guaranteed matches left to play in his junior season.

• Montana's freshman duo of Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin have seen plenty of action in the Grizzly lineup in their first year in maroon and silver and have been especially effective in doubles.

Individually, the two enter the weekend with a combined 6-4 doubles record, with Stoeger carrying the team's top doubles record at 4-3.

Montana was dominant in doubles prior to the season being canceled in 2020, winning nine of the last 10 doubles points – the first Grizzly team in modern history to do so. So far in 2021, the Griz have picked up just four doubles wins.

Montana returns to the road next week to face Air Force and Idaho State in non-conference action in Pocatello before returning home to finish the regular season against Idaho, Eastern Washington, Weber State, and Montana State.

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Players Mentioned

Max Korkh

Guillermo Martin

Ed Pudney

Oisin Shaffrey

Moritz Stoeger

University of Montana Athletics