Griz open 2022 season at home against EWU and Air Force

The Montana men's tennis team starts its road back to the Big Sky tournament at home this weekend, hosting a pair of non-conference matches against Eastern Washington and Air Force to open the 2022 duals season.

The Griz will knock the lid off the season against a familiar foe in the Eagles on Friday, Jan. 14 at 12:30 p.m. and will look to use home-court advantage to upset Air Force at noon on Sunday, Jan. 16.

Both matches will be played at the Peak Racquet Club south of Missoula, with free admission for all fans, and live scoring will be available for both matches at GoGriz.com/metn.

Montana will have history on its side this week as the Grizzlies enter the slate with a stellar 21-2 home record since 2018, having not lost a match in Missoula for two-straight seasons.

"We're excited. We had some really good results in spots last fall, and now we're excited to open the season, especially at home," said head coach Jason Brown, now entering his fifth season.

"Getting a conference foe and a good Mountain West team to come up here is a great way to start the season, and it will give us a real good test."

Montana takes the court in 2022 with an experienced, senior-laden squad that boasts six upperclassmen on the ten-man roster and a returning first-team All-Big Sky pick in Oisin Shaffrey.

The Griz – picked to slot in at No. 3 in the Big Sky preseason coaches' poll – will rely on that experience to return to the Big Sky tourney after missing out in 2021 due to a conference tiebreaker decision in the shortened-format season.

Now back to the full six-team format, the Griz will look to improve on their 9-10 overall record from a year ago and build on a strong 3-1 Big Sky record to finish at the top of the conference table and return to Phoenix.

"These are good tests that will tell us what we need to improve on and will give us an idea of where we're at in the Big Sky. January and February is prep time for conference matches, so this weekend will really help us in that regard," added Brown.

"The guys are excited to compete. They all trained hard over the break, so we're ready to go."

Eastern Washington comes to Missoula looking to build on a tough 0-13 season in 2021 that saw the Griz post a 6-1 win over the Eagles at home in late April.

Air Force visits Missoula for the first time in program history, coming off an 8-12 season in 2021 that saw the Falcons drop their last four matches of the year.

The Griz and Falcons are very familiar as well, with UM facing Air Force in 2019 and 2021 in dual matches and Montana traveling to Colorado Springs for the Falcon's fall tournament.

Montana dropped a dual 5-2 to Air Force on a neutral court at Idaho State in April of 2021 on the heels of an upset win over No. 62 Gonzaga the week before.

In 2019 UM nearly pulled off an upset over AFA in a narrow 3-4 loss, giving the Grizzlies the confidence needed to defend their den this weekend.

"We're all really excited. We put in a good training block in the fall, and all the lads played over break, so we're just really excited to get started," said Shaffrey, who had the most wins for the Griz last season at 10-6 in singles.

"We've played Air Force pretty close both times we've seen them, so it will be nice to get them in here at the Peak and see how they handle our facility. Altitude plays a big factor in tennis. Going up there, the ball flies. They're obviously used to it, so it will be interesting to see how they deal with our altitude, and just playing at home is a big advantage for us."

While in Missoula, Air Force and EWU will square off on Saturday in a neutral site match at the Peak to make it a round-robin weekend. Eastern Washington's match against Montana will serve as its season opener, while Air Force will open its season on Friday against Montana State in Bozeman before traveling to Missoula to play EWU and UM on consecutive days for three-straight matches.

Montana returns to action Feb. 5-6 with duals against Boise State and Seattle University in Boise.

GRIZ TRACKS

• Montana returns four seniors to this season's squad, with Shaffrey, Milo Benn, Pontus Hallgren, and Ed Pudney each in their final season in maroon and silver.

• Pudney and Shaffrey have featured at the top of Montana's lineup for the past two seasons and bring a combined 77 singles wins into their senior campaigns.

• Head coach Jason Brown enters the year with a 39-33 overall record and a stellar 19-8 Big Sky record since 2018. His teams have only lost two matches at home in that time, entering the year with a 21-2 record in Missoula.

• Junior Lawrence Sciglitano, a transfer from Boise State and George Washington before that, will see his first action in a dual match for the Griz this weekend after posting an 8-4 fall tournament record.

• Sophomores Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin return this season as two of Montana's top doubles players. The pair combined for a 16-6 record as individuals in doubles last year, With Stoeger posting a team-high 10 doubles wins on the year.

• Freshmen Sam Baldwin and Gustav Theilgaard could see their first duals action for the Grizzlies this weekend.

• Pudney enters the season with UM's highest Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) at 12.22, while Theilgaard slots in second at 12.07 and Shaffrey third on the team with 12.06.

• As a team, the Griz currently hold a 71.31 UTR, the third-highest in the Big Sky behind Sac State (72.15) and NAU (71.76).

Griz open 2022 season at home against EWU and Air Force

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Players Mentioned

Sam Baldwin

Milo Benn

Pontus Hallgren

Guillermo Martin

Ed Pudney

Lawrence Sciglitano

Oisin Shaffrey

Moritz Stoeger

Gustav Theilgaard

University of Montana Athletics