Griz notebook: Tennis nets first win

by Roman Stubbs | February 9, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

Sandwiched between a pair of tough losses, the Montana women’s tennis team found a bright spot while on the road in Colorado. 

The day after a 6–1 loss to Air Force and before a 4–3 loss to Colorado State, the Griz finally found success on the court Saturday afternoon by defeating Texas-San Antonio 5–2 in Colorado Springs, Colo., for their first win of the spring season. 

Junior Rebecca Bran continued to impress early on in the season, winning a tough three-set match against UTSA’s number one, Micaela Silva. 

Bran, who went 6–0 over the weekend in combined singles and doubles, recovered from a 4–6 first set loss to cruise through the rest of the match, toping Silva 6–1, then 6–2 in the deciding set. 

The top four UM players won their singles matches, with Constance Alexander winning in straight sets, Amanda Bran squeezing out a win in a third set tie-breaker, and Heather Davidson winning in straight sets. 

The Griz then proceeded to win two out of the three doubles matches. 

Against Air Force, Rebecca Bran was the only victor for the Griz on the singles court, while Bran and Davidson teamed for UM’s lone doubles victory. 

On Sunday the Rams narrowly edged the Griz, putting Montana’s record at 1–3 so far this spring. 

Track and Field

Katrina Drennen has a habit of dominating throughout the school year. 

The junior runner, who had a standout season this fall for the cross-country team, continued her dominance in distance races this weekend at the Runner’s Soul Open, held in Moscow, Idaho.

Drennen cruised to a first place finish in the 3,000-meter race with a career best time of 9:44:45, besting the field by more than seven seconds.

In other distance races, senior Brooke Andrus won the women’s 800 meters and junior Michael Fisher won the men’s 3,000 meters.

Freshman Lindsey Hall kept on pace with her stellar season by winning the long jump, while sophomore Jabin Sambrano topped the field in the 200 meters to go along with a second place finish in the 60 meters.

The night before at the Vandal Indoor, sophomore Kesslee Payne won the mile. Payne posted a time of 4:59.62 for her first sub five-minute mile. 

Adding to Payne’s success at the Indoor, was sophomore Emily Eickholt.  Running in the 800–meters, Eickholt posted the second-fastest Big Sky Conference time of the season at 2:12.73, although Lauren Schaffer of Idaho edged her out, winning with a time of 2:11.77. 

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