Montana
Southern Utah
Griz sweep Thunderbirds to open road trip
3/28/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
March 28, 2014
The Montana men's tennis team opened its five-match road trip with a quick 7-0 victory over Southern Utah Friday afternoon at the Thunderbird Tennis Courts at Cedar City, Utah.
The Grizzlies (5-8, 3-0 BSC) had no trouble winning the doubles point, then dropped just 10 games in six singles matches to remain one of just two teams -- Weber State is 6-0 -- still unbeaten in Big Sky Conference matches.
The loss keeps Southern Utah (0-10, 0-6 BSC) winless on the season.
Montana, which drove from Missoula to Salt Lake City, flew to Las Vegas, then drove to Cedar City, plays at fifth-place Northern Arizona (7-7, 3-2 BSC) Sunday. The road trip continues with matches at UNLV, Weber State and Idaho State next week.
"Considering we had two long travel days getting here, I was pretty happy with how we played today," UM coach Kris Nord said.
"We didn't have any of our matches really get challenged, and that's kind of how we wanted to have it the first match out of the gate on this trip."
Senior Ethan Vaughn and sophomore Semion Branzburg won for the third time in four matches at No. 1 doubles, and the Grizzlies won all three doubles matches by scores of 8-3 or better.
In singles, Branzburg, at No. 4, and Vaughn, at No. 5, both won 6-0, 6-0. Sophomore Tomasz Soltyka, who joined the team at the semester break, won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 to improve to 9-3 as a Grizzly.
"The entire team looked solid in both doubles and singles," Nord said. "We went out and took care of business."
On Sunday Montana will face a Northern Arizona team that has won four of its last five matches, including three straight against Big Sky opponents to improve to 3-2 in league. One of those was a 4-0 thumping of Montana State, a team that knocked off Montana back in mid-February.
"We'll have a real challenge at NAU in two days," Nord said. "I hope our guys are ready to go."
Montana 7, Southern Utah 0
March 28, 2014 at Cedar City, Utah (Thunderbird Tennis Courts)
Singles competition
1. Mikolaj Caruk (UM) def. Troy Benson (SUU) 6-1, 6-1
2. Andrew Warren (UM) def. Blair Robbins (SUU) 6-1, 6-2
3. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) def. Alex Dial (SUU) 6-1, 6-1
4. Semion Branzburg (UM) def. Ammon Story (SUU) 6-0, 6-0
5. Ethan Vaughn (UM) def. Branden Olcott (SUU) 6-0, 6-0
6. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Mitchell John (SUU) 6-0, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. Ethan Vaughn/Semion Branzburg (UM) def. Troy Benson/Blair Robbins (SUU) 8-3
2. Mikolaj Caruk/Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Alex Dial/Branden Olcott (SUU) 8-2
3. Andrew Warren/Eric Braun (UM) def. Mitchell John/Ammon Story (SUU) 8-3
Match Notes
Montana: 5-8, 3-0 BSC
Southern Utah: 0-10, 0-6 BSC
Players Mentioned
