Montana
Southern Utah
Montana picks up first win of season at home
2/16/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Feb. 16, 2013
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Saturday's match marked quite a few season firsts for the Montana men's tennis team.
Montana swept Southern Utah 7-0 Saturday afternoon on the Grizzlies' home courts at the Peak Racquet Club.
After starting the season with some tough road matches to teams like Boise State and Air Force, Montana picked up its first win of the season against the Thunderbirds, and the team made it look rather effortless.
"It's nice to get our first win of the season," said head coach Kris Nord. "And of course, it's always sweeter when we win at home."
During the course of the day, only three games were dropped by Montana. All three doubles teams won their matches, giving Montana an easy first point.
The players then started their singles matches with the same motivation to win.
Andrew Warren knocked out a win against Bryton Wells at the No. 2 spot to give the Grizzlies its first singles win of the day. The rest of the team followed suit and finished off the sweep. Eric Braunwrapped up the day with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Branden Olcott.
"We did exactly what we wanted to," said Nord. "We stayed focused and had some great matches."
Montana welcomed back Mikolaj Carukto the courts after recovering from surgery. He teamed up with Warren to defeat Troy Benson and Russ Christensen 8-0 at the No. 1 spot in doubles. Caruk then picked up another point for Montana by beating Benson in the No. 1 spot in singles.
"It's great to have our full line-up healthy," said Nord. "For missing almost two months of tennis, he hasn't missed a beat. We still have some work to do, and he will have some tough matches coming up that will challenge him."
The victory over the Big Sky Conference newcomer SUU gives Montana its first conference win of the season. This is SUU's first year with a men's tennis program.
Montana has some time off before hosting Idaho and Montana State March 2-3.
Montana def. Southern Utah 7-0
Doubles:
1. Mikolaj Caruk/Andrew Warren def. Troy Benson/Russ Christensen 8-0
2. Michael Facey/Ethan Vaughn def. Alex Dial/Bryton Wells 8-1
3. Eric Braun/Semion Branzburg def. Spencer Nielsen/Branden Olcott 8-0
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles:
1. Mikolaj Caruk def. Troy Benson 6-0, 6-1
2. Andrew Warren def. Bryton Wells 6-0, 6-0
3. Michael Facey def. Russ Christensen 6-0, 6-1
4. Ethan Vaughn def. Alex Dial 6-0, 6-0
5. Semion Branzburg def. Spencer Nielson 6-0, 6-0
6. Eric Braun def. Branden Olcott 6-0, 6-0
Order of finish: 2, 1, 4, 3, 5, 6
