Women’s Tennis Welcomes Three New Players for 2025
9/9/2025 6:39:00 PM | Women's Tennis
University of Montana's women's tennis coach Steve Ascher announced the addition of three new players to the roster in 2025, adding a mix of college and high school experience to the squad for the year ahead.
Paige Bott is an all-conference junior transfer from The University of Texas Permian Basin, while Meghna Anand from Eastern Canada and Kamila Slovakova of the Czech Republic are both true freshmen additions to the Grizzly program.
"All three of them, honestly, are good people and come from good families, first and foremost. I'm looking forward to working with people that are coachable and want to learn," said Ascher.
"Every year is different, so I think there's a lot to be learned. I feel like we're young, but I'm interested to see where they can go in terms of their level, their dedication, how hard they push themselves, and how they approach their college experience."
Bott transferred to UM this summer after playing two seasons at UT Permian Basin. Originally from London, she won several awards during her time with the D-II Falcons. She comes to Montana as a two-time All-Lone Star Conference honorable mention in doubles and a 2024 honorable mention in singles.
With an 8-2 doubles record as a sophomore she climbed as high as No. 36 in the D-II doubles rankings after knocking off three top 20 pairings at position one. She finished the 2025 season ranked No. 7 in the South-Central regional doubles rankings and helped UTPB win the doubles point in six of their ten conference matches.
A communications major, she's a two-time International Tennis Association (ITA) Scholar Athlete award winner and was named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team as well as being named to the 2024-25 Lone Star Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 4.0 GPA in both semesters.
As a prep player in England, she beat two of the top four seeds to win the U14 Essex Finals as an unseeded player in 2018 to qualify for The Road to Wimbledon tournament, where she went 3-0 to win her group and advance to the knockout stage.
"Paige was a nationally ranked player and has some great experience. She comes from a D-II, but if you play college tennis in Texas, you're going to get a ton of experience against a lot of good teams. So, I'm excited to see what she's like and how that experience can help us," Ascher said.
Anand is a multi-sport athlete from Truro, Nova Scotia, who comes to Montana as one of the top age-grade tennis players in Canada and a three-time representative of Nova Scotia in the Canadian Summer Games.
She put together a 368-160 overall record as a prep player in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, finishing seventh in the 2023 U16 Canadian Summer Nationals singles bracket and advancing to the doubles semifinal that year as well.
She's a three-time Nova Scotia Open women's singles champion and the youngest woman to ever win the tournament once, let alone three times in a row. She also won the Nova Scotia Open doubles and mixed doubles championships twice and is a two-time champion at the New Brunswick Open in singles and doubles as well.
Anand is a three-time sportsmanship award winner in Canadian national tournaments in 2022, 2023, and 2024. She also played volleyball and badminton at the representative level in high school and was a figure skater in her youth as well.
She will be studying Biomedical Sciences at UM and intends to enter the medical field after graduation and is also able to speak five different languages.
"There's not much tennis back in Nova Scotia, but she's done a great job with her development. I'm excited to have her because I feel like giving her an environment where she'll have a little bit more robust training, more people to hit with, a bit more variety of people to train with and a lot of matches will give her a great chance to grow. So, I'm looking forward to watching that growth," Ascher said.
Slovakova, from Vigantice in Eastern Czechia, is a top regional player at the prep level that lists a record of 20-plus doubles and singles tournament wins at the C level in her career. She also won a B level doubles tournament in 2024 and took second place in qualification for the 2001 Czech Republic national tournament.
She also took second place at an ITF J2 doubles tournament in Hungary in 2023, and has advanced to the quarterfinal round of several other ITF tourneys around Europe as well.
She intends to get her degree in Physical Therapy at UM.
"Kamila comes to us from the Czech Republic through connections with agents, some friends that coach there and some former players from there. Monica (Fizova) is also friends with her, they're basically from the same town or area, so it's nice she'll have someone she knows here. We've built a nice little pipeline to Czech, so I'm excited about that. The Czech Republic is producing a lot of good tennis right now," Ascher said.
The new additions to the squad will get their first opportunities to compete in maroon and silver this week when Montana opens the 2025 fall tournament season on Friday at the Idaho State Invitational in Pocatello.
Paige Bott is an all-conference junior transfer from The University of Texas Permian Basin, while Meghna Anand from Eastern Canada and Kamila Slovakova of the Czech Republic are both true freshmen additions to the Grizzly program.
"All three of them, honestly, are good people and come from good families, first and foremost. I'm looking forward to working with people that are coachable and want to learn," said Ascher.
"Every year is different, so I think there's a lot to be learned. I feel like we're young, but I'm interested to see where they can go in terms of their level, their dedication, how hard they push themselves, and how they approach their college experience."
Bott transferred to UM this summer after playing two seasons at UT Permian Basin. Originally from London, she won several awards during her time with the D-II Falcons. She comes to Montana as a two-time All-Lone Star Conference honorable mention in doubles and a 2024 honorable mention in singles.
With an 8-2 doubles record as a sophomore she climbed as high as No. 36 in the D-II doubles rankings after knocking off three top 20 pairings at position one. She finished the 2025 season ranked No. 7 in the South-Central regional doubles rankings and helped UTPB win the doubles point in six of their ten conference matches.
A communications major, she's a two-time International Tennis Association (ITA) Scholar Athlete award winner and was named to the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District Team as well as being named to the 2024-25 Lone Star Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 4.0 GPA in both semesters.
As a prep player in England, she beat two of the top four seeds to win the U14 Essex Finals as an unseeded player in 2018 to qualify for The Road to Wimbledon tournament, where she went 3-0 to win her group and advance to the knockout stage.
"Paige was a nationally ranked player and has some great experience. She comes from a D-II, but if you play college tennis in Texas, you're going to get a ton of experience against a lot of good teams. So, I'm excited to see what she's like and how that experience can help us," Ascher said.
Anand is a multi-sport athlete from Truro, Nova Scotia, who comes to Montana as one of the top age-grade tennis players in Canada and a three-time representative of Nova Scotia in the Canadian Summer Games.
She put together a 368-160 overall record as a prep player in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, finishing seventh in the 2023 U16 Canadian Summer Nationals singles bracket and advancing to the doubles semifinal that year as well.
She's a three-time Nova Scotia Open women's singles champion and the youngest woman to ever win the tournament once, let alone three times in a row. She also won the Nova Scotia Open doubles and mixed doubles championships twice and is a two-time champion at the New Brunswick Open in singles and doubles as well.
Anand is a three-time sportsmanship award winner in Canadian national tournaments in 2022, 2023, and 2024. She also played volleyball and badminton at the representative level in high school and was a figure skater in her youth as well.
She will be studying Biomedical Sciences at UM and intends to enter the medical field after graduation and is also able to speak five different languages.
"There's not much tennis back in Nova Scotia, but she's done a great job with her development. I'm excited to have her because I feel like giving her an environment where she'll have a little bit more robust training, more people to hit with, a bit more variety of people to train with and a lot of matches will give her a great chance to grow. So, I'm looking forward to watching that growth," Ascher said.
Slovakova, from Vigantice in Eastern Czechia, is a top regional player at the prep level that lists a record of 20-plus doubles and singles tournament wins at the C level in her career. She also won a B level doubles tournament in 2024 and took second place in qualification for the 2001 Czech Republic national tournament.
She also took second place at an ITF J2 doubles tournament in Hungary in 2023, and has advanced to the quarterfinal round of several other ITF tourneys around Europe as well.
She intends to get her degree in Physical Therapy at UM.
"Kamila comes to us from the Czech Republic through connections with agents, some friends that coach there and some former players from there. Monica (Fizova) is also friends with her, they're basically from the same town or area, so it's nice she'll have someone she knows here. We've built a nice little pipeline to Czech, so I'm excited about that. The Czech Republic is producing a lot of good tennis right now," Ascher said.
The new additions to the squad will get their first opportunities to compete in maroon and silver this week when Montana opens the 2025 fall tournament season on Friday at the Idaho State Invitational in Pocatello.
Griz Volleyball Press Conference - 10/20/25
Monday, October 20
Montana vs Sacred Heart Highlights
Monday, October 20
UM vs SHU Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 19
Griz Soccer vs. Idaho State Postgame Report - 10/12/25
Wednesday, October 15
