Tennis team hopes to improve standing

With sights set on berths in the postseason, the University of Montana men’s and women’s tennis teams will look to improve their Big Sky Conference standings in matchups this weekend.

The top six teams, for both the men and women, earn tickets to the conference playoffs, which start later this month.

The sixth-place men (5-5, 1-2 BSC) will play at Weber State on Friday and at Idaho State on Saturday.

The Wildcats are 2-1 in the Big Sky and last weekend defeated a Montana State club that had previously handled the Griz.

“Weber State’s awfully tough,” coach Kris Nord said. “They’re looking like they could finish in the top third of the conference.”

Nord called Weber the most improved team in the conference this season.

In Idaho State, the Griz will face a less imposing adversary. The Bengals are 1-12 this season and 1-4 in the Big Sky.

With just two weekends of competition remaining for both the men and women, it’s crunch time for the playoff hopefuls.

“I think the guys realize that,” Nord said. “We’ve got to play real smart to see what happens later in the season.”

The ladies (5-10, 2-2), who stand in fifth in the conference, will have the benefit of playing at home for the third time this spring. They hope to use the tilts Saturday against third-place Eastern Washington (8-9, 4-3) and Sunday against fourth-place Montana State (6-4, 2-2) as momentum to secure a postseason berth, coach Jen Anderson said.

“They’re just excited to start playing well and finish the season strong,” she said. “They have that attitude where they’re ready to win, and they want to win. And they think they can do it, and I think they can do it.”

The final homestand of the season for the Griz will also be the final opportunity for senior Mari Castello to perform in front of a hometown crowd.

The senior from Belleville, Ill., has amassed 45 career singles wins and has played largely at the No. 2 singles slot for the team.

Castello joined the team as a freshman in 2005, the same year Anderson started coaching.

“She’s definitely grown as a player and as a person on and off the court,” Anderson said. “So it’s been nice to see her go through the stages of tennis and school.”

Matches start at the Lindsay Tennis Center on campus at 10 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday.

Anderson said she hopes the team can turn in a strong April, like in the past couple of years.

“The girls know it that April is our month,” she said. “For some reason we always play better in April. The beginning of the season is a little tougher for us, but at the end of the season they seem to step it up.”