Montana
UNLV
UNLV, rain top Montana 5-0
4/2/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 2, 2014
UNLV used a strong showing in doubles to grab an early advantage, and the rain showed up at just the wrong time to dampen Montana's comeback bid in the Rebels' 5-0 victory over the Grizzlies Wednesday afternoon at the Fertitta Tennis Complex in Las Vegas.
Montana (6-8), which has matches Saturday and Sunday at Weber State and Idaho State, lost for the first time on its long, five-match road trip.
UNLV, which lost a narrow 4-3 decision to Stanford in its previous match, improved to 11-8.
The Grizzlies lost 8-1 at No. 1 doubles and 8-4 at No. 2, and the match at No. 3 went unfinished. It was only the fourth time this spring Montana has not won at least one doubles match against an opponent.
"They are really strong in doubles, and they just kind of jumped on us," UM coach Kris Nord said. "We were a little overwhelmed at the start, but they are a real solid team with a lot of really good wins this year.
"I kind of challenged the guys to turn it around and make it more competitive in singles, and we really did."
Montana did not win any singles matches, but senior Andrew Warren was up 7-6, 5-3 and serving for the match at No. 2 and senior Ethan Vaughn had taken Dimitar Petrov to the third set at No. 5 when the rain showed up.
Sophomore Semion Branzburg lost 6-2, 7-6 at No. 3, and sophomore Tomasz Soltyka lost 6-1, 7-5 at No. 4 after holding a 5-1 lead in the second set.
"We were winning four matches at one point, but we couldn't quite pull it off," Nord said. "I was really happy with how we competed and how we responded in singles. We pushed them real well."
Montana, which is 4-0 in the Big Sky, has seven matches remaining in its regular season, six of which are against league opponents.
There is only one other unbeaten in the Big Sky, Weber State at 7-0, and the Grizzlies face the Wildcats Saturday at noon at Ogden in what has turned out to be the Big Sky's match of the year. Every other league team has at least two losses.
"We know the main prize for us is our conference matches, so Saturday and Sunday are enormous," Nord said.
"Weber has been tough, so it doesn't surprise me they are in that position. It's going to be a big challenge, because they are always fired up to play us anyway. We've got to get our guys ready to go play three hard hours of tennis."
UNLV 5, Montana 0
April 2, 2014 at Las Vegas, Nev. (Fertitta Tennis Complex)
Singles competition
1. Ace Matias (UNLV) def. Mikolaj Caruk (UM) 6-4, 6-1
2. Denys Pume (UNLV) vs. Andrew Warren (UM) unfinished
3. Tamas Batyi (UNLV) def. Semion Branzburg (UM) 6-2, 7-6
4. Willie Sublette (UNLV) def. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) 6-1, 7-5
5. Dimitar Petrov (UNLV) vs. Ethan Vaughn (UM) unfinished
6. Jakob Amilon (UNLV) def. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) 6-2, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Ace Matias/Denys Pume (UNLV) def. Ethan Vaughn/Semion Branzburg (UM) 8-1
2. Willie Sublette/Tamas Batyi (UNLV) def. Mikolaj Caruk/Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) 8-4
3. Jakob Amilon/Dimitar Petrov (UNLV) vs. Andrew Warren/Eric Braun (UM) unfinished
Match Notes:
UNLV: 11-8
Montana: 6-9
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (1,6,4,3)
Players Mentioned
