The Pioneers welcomed new assistant coach Jeremy Wurtzman to the team with a strong showing at the ITA Mountain Regional Championships at the Amanda and Stacy Darling Memorial Tennis Center in Las Vegas, Nev.

Senior Nejc Smole advanced to the semifinals and junior Adam Holmstrom made it to the quarterfinals before retiring due to an injury.

Smole lost to Utah’s Zach Ganger 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinal match. Smole advanced to the match up against Ganger after defeating BYU’s Chip Hand in three sets, the third set being decided in a tiebreaker. Smole had won his previous matches rather easily, winning each match in the minimum two sets.

Holmstrom headed into the tournament as the No. 2 seed and won his first match 6-0, 6-3 over David Campbell of UNLV.

Holmstrom then defeated New Mexico State’s Miles Busby in three sets and Blake Boswell of Boise State 6-1, 6-1 in the Round of 16.

Holmstrom was injured while playing Clancy Shield in the quarterfinals.

The Pioneers were also represented in the consolation draw.

Junior Timo Kienle lost to Jonathon Hooper in three sets in the Round of 64 in the main draw. Kienle went on to win three matches to advance to the Round 4 qualifier before being defeated in three sets 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 to Wes Burrows of UNLV.

Freshman Ravjot Dhatt lost his opening match in the main draw but won two matches in three sets in the consolation draw to advance to the third round of the qualifier before being knocked out of the tournament by Graeme Kassautzki 6-2, 6-1.

Holmstrom and Smole’s success carried over to the doubles competition. The pairing of Holmstrom and junior Niklas Persson advanced to the quarterfinals before being forced to retire because of Holmstrom’s injury.

Smole and his partner, Kienle, advanced to the Round of 16 before being defeated by Boise State’s pairing of Piotr Dilaj and Luke Shields.

It was the first tournament that the Pioneers played with Jeremy Wurtzman on the coaching staff. Wurtzman was named assistant coach last Tuesday.

Wurtzman was a standout at Ohio State from 2001-2004 and has been playing on the ATP tour, recording nine doubles wins and reached the finals in three singles events. While at Ohio State, Wurtzman finished the 2004 season ranked third by the ITA and spent several weeks at the #1 position.

Next up for the Pioneers is the ITA National Indoors in Columbus, Ohio.