Montana
Northern Arizona
Grizzlies upset by three-seed NAU at Big Sky Championship
4/23/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The NAU win Saturday, which placed the Lumberjacks in the 10 a.m. Big Sky Championship match vs. Sacramento State Sunday was considered an upset, after the Grizzlies handed the Lumberjacks a reciprocal loss a week ago in Missoula with a shorthanded lineup.
Absent in the previous matchup, Kuschke and Smith combined for a close 8-6 loss to Hugo Ramadier and Dominic Bermudez today in Bozeman early on in doubles play.
With the loss at No. 1 and a similar loss by Ben DeMarois and Andrew Warren at No. 3, senior David Cysneiros and partner Mikolaj Caruk took the only doubles win for UM, topping David Flodberg and Robin Pezzzutto 8-6.
Cysneiros, admittedly a stronger doubles returner than singles power, finished off his senior season 9-3 when partnered with Caruk. In year-long play, the Oakville, Ontario native combined for 20 doubles wins in Grizzly uniform.
Following play Saturday, Cysneiros said, "It was a bittersweet experience out there for me today. I'm happy that I won what would be the last two matches of my collegiate career, but I was sad that we couldn't pull it off as a team, there were justa lot of close points that we might have pulled off. Regardless, it is a great close to a very strong season for Montana, and I am glad to have been a part of that success."
Cysneiros' took a vital UM win at No. 6 singles, taking the only straight-set victory for Montana of the day with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Josh Brown.
Cysneiros' victory at No. 6 combined with wins by Kuschke at No. 1 and Smith at No. 2 for a 3-3 team tie at one point in Saturday's match.
Kuschke took his three-set victory over Hugo Ramadier splitting the first sets with his Lumberjack opponent before taking a 6-4 win in his third.
Smith, who also played in his last match of his collegiate career reflected upon the reliability that 29th year UM coach Kris Nord found Saturday in his older players, saying, "The three of us have just been in this situation a few more times than the other guys on the team. We did handle the pressure a bit better, and in the case of Dave (Cysneiros) and I, we were playing what we knew could be our last matches of college. When you face that point, you want to be playing your best tennis and I think that we were very close today."
Smith's singles victory was a close, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-2 win over Peter Schimmelbauer.
Of his match, the Grizzly said, "Due to some injuries from earlier on, I still didn't have a serve, and he took full advantage of that, absolutely ripping winners from the start. I was also a little slow to start, and found myself working very hard to take the tiebreaker in my first set. I paid with a lot of fatigue in the second set, and my opponent definitely took advantage of that. In the final set, I was able to figure out where I could place a softer serve and still stay in the volley. Once I had that, he started to make more errors on his backhand side."
Looking on to the next season of Grizzly tennis, Smith tipped his hat to fellow South African Carl Kuschke saying, "Carl is only getting better. He learns very quickly and as a senior, I am expecting him to be solidly among the best in this conference and the region as a whole. All of these guys are going to get better and I'll definitely be excited to be as much a part of Montana tennis as I possibly can in the years to come."
Big Sky Men's Semifinal result:
#2 Montana vs. #3 Northern Arizona
Anderson-Bobcat Tennis Center
Bozeman, Mont.
Northern Arizona 4, Montana 3
Doubles:
#1 Ramadier/Bermudez (NAU) def. Kuschke/Smith (UM), 8-6
#2 Cysneiros/Caruk (UM) def. Flodberg/Pezzutto (NAU), 8-6
#3 Schmmelbauer/Lantz (NAU) def. Warren/DeMarois (UM), 8-5
(2,3,1)
Singles:
#1 Kuschke (UM) def. Ramadier (NAU), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
#2 Smith (UM) def. Schimmelbauer (NAU), 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-2
#3 Pezzutto (NAU) def. Facey (UM), 6-3, 6-4
#4 Flodberg (NAU) def. Caruk (UM), 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-4
#5 Bermudez (NAU) def. Warren (UM), 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-3
#6 Cysneiros (UM) def. Brown (UM), 6-2, 6-2
(3,2,1,4,6,5)
Full recap to follow.
Players Mentioned
