Baldwin tweener nets him Player of the Week honors
1/25/2023 9:59:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Make it two-for-two for the Montana men's tennis team.
Following an undefeated weekend highlighted by perhaps the shot of the year that landed him on national television, Grizzly sophomore Sam Baldwin has been named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, the league announced Wednesday.
It's the first Player of the Week award of Baldwin's career, and the second for the Grizzlies in as many weeks this season after Guillermo Martin earned the accolade on week one.
Baldwin went 4-0 on a three-match road trip for Montana to eastern Washington that saw the Griz shut out Whitworth in a doubleheader and EWU in a Big Sky preview 7-0 in each match.
The native of Brisbane, Australia, won three singles matches, all in straight sets on courts one, two, and three, and one doubles match 6-1 for a dominant weekend.
He made his UM singles debut on the No. 1 court for the Griz against Whitworth, racing to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Ethan Warring.
In that match, he chased down a ball at the baseline and made a highlight reel, between-the-legs rocket winner that would eventually wind up on ESPN's SportsCenter Top-10 plays of the day, a rarity for any Grizzly program, let alone men's tennis. The Big Sky Conference also named the shot it's No. 1 play of the week.
Baldwin also picked up a doubles win in the first doubleheader match against the Pirates, pairing with Baltazar Wiger-Nordas on court two to blow past Whitworth's Preacher/Weaver pair 6-1.
He was equally as efficient in the second match, beating Payton Romey 6-2, 6-0 on singles court two for a pair of wins Saturday.
In a nonconference Big Sky tune-up in Cheney, Baldwin took to singles court three against Eastern Washington and came away with another straight-set win, this time over Caden Kammerer 6-2, 6-4 in Montana's 7-0 team win.
"A huge congratulations to Sam for this much-deserved recognition," said Grizzly head coach Jason Brown.
"Since his arrival here in the fall of 2021, he has consistently been an insanely hard worker, leading to an astounding amount of improvement in a very short time. From spending most of his freshman year out of the lineup to moving toward the top of our lineup is simply incredible. I think this is just the start of massive things for Mr. Baldwin."
Montana returns to the road this weekend, traveling to Colorado's front range to take on Air Force on Friday, followed by a neutral site dual against Abilene Christian at the USAFA on Saturday.
The Grizzlies picked up one of the biggest upsets in program history last year against Air Force, beating the Falcons 4-3 in Missoula.
Following an undefeated weekend highlighted by perhaps the shot of the year that landed him on national television, Grizzly sophomore Sam Baldwin has been named the Big Sky Conference Player of the Week, the league announced Wednesday.
It's the first Player of the Week award of Baldwin's career, and the second for the Grizzlies in as many weeks this season after Guillermo Martin earned the accolade on week one.
Baldwin went 4-0 on a three-match road trip for Montana to eastern Washington that saw the Griz shut out Whitworth in a doubleheader and EWU in a Big Sky preview 7-0 in each match.
The native of Brisbane, Australia, won three singles matches, all in straight sets on courts one, two, and three, and one doubles match 6-1 for a dominant weekend.
He made his UM singles debut on the No. 1 court for the Griz against Whitworth, racing to a 6-1, 6-2 win over Ethan Warring.
In that match, he chased down a ball at the baseline and made a highlight reel, between-the-legs rocket winner that would eventually wind up on ESPN's SportsCenter Top-10 plays of the day, a rarity for any Grizzly program, let alone men's tennis. The Big Sky Conference also named the shot it's No. 1 play of the week.
Yeah, Sam's shot was THAT good 👀 👏#SCtop10 #GoGriz #GrizMTEN pic.twitter.com/QK2NZiTOCm
— Montana Griz Men's Tennis 🎾 (@MontanaGrizMTEN) January 24, 2023
Baldwin also picked up a doubles win in the first doubleheader match against the Pirates, pairing with Baltazar Wiger-Nordas on court two to blow past Whitworth's Preacher/Weaver pair 6-1.
He was equally as efficient in the second match, beating Payton Romey 6-2, 6-0 on singles court two for a pair of wins Saturday.
In a nonconference Big Sky tune-up in Cheney, Baldwin took to singles court three against Eastern Washington and came away with another straight-set win, this time over Caden Kammerer 6-2, 6-4 in Montana's 7-0 team win.
"A huge congratulations to Sam for this much-deserved recognition," said Grizzly head coach Jason Brown.
"Since his arrival here in the fall of 2021, he has consistently been an insanely hard worker, leading to an astounding amount of improvement in a very short time. From spending most of his freshman year out of the lineup to moving toward the top of our lineup is simply incredible. I think this is just the start of massive things for Mr. Baldwin."
Montana returns to the road this weekend, traveling to Colorado's front range to take on Air Force on Friday, followed by a neutral site dual against Abilene Christian at the USAFA on Saturday.
The Grizzlies picked up one of the biggest upsets in program history last year against Air Force, beating the Falcons 4-3 in Missoula.
𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐬 ⏫️
— Big Sky Conference (@BigSkyConf) January 24, 2023
Check out the best of the best in the Big Sky from this past week 👀 #ExperienceElevated pic.twitter.com/Dm05iK8DYs
👀 Sammy B with the 𝙐𝙉𝘽𝙀𝙇𝙄𝙀𝙑𝘼𝘽𝙇𝙀 tweener! 🤯#SCtop10 #GoGriz #GrizMTEN #tweener pic.twitter.com/v5eNWZ1vPb
— Montana Griz Men's Tennis 🎾 (@MontanaGrizMTEN) January 23, 2023
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