Montana
Montana State
Montana wins against rival Bobcats in non-conference clash
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Friday afternoon's match between Montana and Montana State didn't count toward either team's Big Sky record, but the atmosphere at the Robert O. Lindsay Tennis Center in Missoula said otherwise as the Grizzlies prevailed 6-1.
A good crowd was on hand in Missoula as the two teams split the first two doubles matches. Montana State (8-6/6-2 BSC) had a 5-4 lead in the No. 1 match-up, and was closing in on the doubles point.
Tomasz Soltyka held his own serve to tie it up at 5-all, then he and his partner Peter Mimnagh-Fleming broke the Bobcats to go ahead 6-5. The crowd got into it, and Mimnagh-Fleming held serve to give Montana (5-4/5-1 BSC) the doubles point.
Coach Kris Nord was proud of how the two veterans answered under pressure.
"It's a lot of pressure," he said. "It's hard, until you're in that position, things change, the adrenaline gets going and you don't always make the best decisions but I love how our guys played under pressure. That's a good sign for the next couple weeks."
Montana took the lead into singles and quickly built on it thanks to a dominating 6-0, 6-0 win by Yannick Schmidl at No. 6. A lot of time passed before the next match, No. 3 singles finished. Mimnagh-Fleming earned a straight-set victory to put Montana one point away from clinching the match.
Montana State climbed back a little bit, with Andre Napoliatano getting a comeback win against Tomasz Soltyka of Montana 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. But Napoliatano would get no help from his fellow Bobcats.
Semion Branzburg clinched the match for Montana at No. 2 singles with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 victory. The final two matches were also won by Montana, with both Alexandr Rudenco and Victor Casadevall winning multiple tiebreakers en route to the 6-1 Montana win.
Casadevall lost his first set 6-4 before winning the next two in tiebreaks. Nord was happy how he fought back, even after the match had been clinched.
"It was great to see Victor make a comeback, and our top three played real well," he said.
There were six tiebreaks in the six singles matches, and a Montana player won every single one of them, much to the delight of Nord.
"It's awesome that we played well under pressure," he said. "I think we can play better. That's an MSU team that's not at full strength, which our guys know, I know. When they get one of their players back they're going to be much tougher, but I just like how we performed in the moment today."
The Grizzlies have a quick turnaround before playing Weber State tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. The match will be played at PEAK because of the threat of rain. Weber State is 8-9 on the year and 3-1 in the Big Sky. Nord believes it will take his teams best effort to get the win.
"We have our hands full tomorrow," he said. "Weber State is very good. I think they are one of the top two favorites in the league, between them and Northern Arizona. I'm excited to see how we match up. We're the underdog tomorrow."
Montana 6, Montana State 1
Dr. Robert O. Lindsay Tennis Center, Missoula, Montana
March 20, 2015
Singles
1. Andre Napoliatano (MSU) def. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
2. Semion Branzburg (UM) def. Niklas Brandes (MSU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-4
3. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Javier Martin Morillas (MSU) 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)
4. Victor Casadevall (UM) def. Kellen Bates (MSU) 4-6, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3)
5. Alexandr Rudenco (UM) def. Dylan Harvala (MSU) 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (8-6)
6. Yannick Schmidl (UM) def. Aaron Farmer (MSU) 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
1. Soltyka/Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Brandes/Morillas (MSU) 7-5
2. Bates/Nopoliatano (MSU) def. Branzburg/Schmidl (UM) 6-1
3. Zach Fisher/Casadevall (UM) def. Farmer/Harvala (MSU) 6-2
Order of Finish
Singles (6, 3, 1, 2, 5, 4)
Doubles (3, 2, 1)
Players Mentioned
