April 26, 2012

The Grizzly men's tennis team's historic season is over but the Griz continue to break records. For the first time ever the Grizzlies placed three players on the Big Sky Conference All-Conference tennis First-Team the conference announced Thursday.

Sophomores Mikolaj Caruk and Ethan Vaughn and junior Michael Facey were all named to the First-Team while freshman Andreas Luczakwas received an Honorable Mention nod.

The honors are voted on by the nine Big Sky coaches.

The Grizzlies finished the season 16-5 including an 8-0 conference record and the Big Sky regular season title. Montana beat Weber State 4-3 in the conference semifinals before losing in the conference title match to Sacramento State.

Caruk overcame a mid-season emergency appendectomy to score a 13-5 record including 8-0 in conference at the No. 2 spot for the Griz. Caruk was recognized as the Big Sky Player of the week for the week of April 10-16. The Warsaw, Poland native was a second team Big Sky player last season.

Facey scored a 12-6 record at the Grizzlies' No. 4 spot. He also went undefeated in conference with an 8-0 record. The junior is from Cameron Park, Calif.

Vaughn found his grove at the No. 5 this season. The Spokane, Wash. native went 17-0 at No. 5 and 8-0 in Big Sky play.

Luczak was 12-4 and 6-2 in Big Sky play at No. 6 this season. The Lund, Sweden native was the Big Sky Player of the Week for April 3-9. The freshman also won four match-clinching victories for the Griz.

2012 Men's Tennis All-Conference Teams

First Team

Player                                   School                      Year       Hometown

@Simon Unger (MVP)          Weber State                  Sr.           Moenchengladbach, Germany

Niklas Brandes                   Montana State               Fr.           Nordenham, Germany

Mikolaj Caruk                     Montana                       So.          Warsaw, Poland

Ilija Cuic                            Eastern Washington       So.          Zagreb, Croatia

Mike Facey                         Montana                       Jr.           Cameron Park, Calif.

Aliaksandr Malko                 Sacramento State         Jr.           Minsk, Belarus

Marek Marksoo                   Sacramento State         Fr.           Tallinn, Estonia

Ethan Vaughn                     Montana                      So.          Spokane, Wash.

@ Four-Time Selection

Second Team    

Player                                   School                       Year         Hometown

Dominic Bermudez              Northern Arizona             So.          Tucson, Ariz.

Brandon Lupo                     Northern Colorado          Sr.           Broomfield, Colo.

Javier Millan                       Sacramento State           Sr.           Hermosillo, Mexico

Krzysztof Stempien              Idaho State                   Fr.          Lodz, Poland

Honorable Mention

Player                                   School                     Year         Hometown

Ben Gendron                     Northern Colorado          Fr.           Flower Mound, Texas

Chad Henninger                 Eastern Washington       Sr.           Eugene, Ore.

Andreas Luczak                  Montana                      Fr.           Lund, Sweden

Mario Navarro                    Eastern Washington       So.          Barcelona, Spain