Montana
Northern Colorado
Grizzly tennis picks up second straight victory
3/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The Montana Grizzlies men's tennis team continued in its winning ways Friday afternoon in Greeley, Colorado, where they defeated the host Northern Colorado Bears (3-8/0-4 BSC) 5-2.
Montana (2-4/2-1 BSC) was able to pick up its first doubles point of the season to start the day off strong. They won all three doubles matches in close contests. Tomasz Soltyka and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming highlighted the doubles play with a 6-3 victory at No. 1. Coach Kris Nord emphasized the importance of finally grabbing a doubles point.
"It's important confidence wise for our guys," Nord said. "We've always had one team playing well, and one team not. All three teams I felt played really good, and that's what we'll need Sunday at North Dakota."
In singles, Montana dominated the bottom of the line-up on their way to the 5-2 win. Three freshmen ¬¬¬-Victor Casadevall, Alexandr Rudenco and Yannick Schmidl- won matches from No. 4 through No. 6.
Nord listed the Casadevall match at No. 4, which ended 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2 as perhaps the most important match of the day.
"Casadevall beating Schuermans for them in a three-set match was huge," he said. "He played a great first and third set, and we needed to have that."
The top half of the line-up was controlled by UNC, but a win at No. 2 by Semion Branzburg helped push the Griz on to victory.
"Semion Branzburg winning was crucial," Nord said. "We had to have one of the top three matches, and we lost tight matches at one and three."
The win elevates Montana above .500 in conference play. Nord is happy his team went to Colorado and managed the elevation and travel.
"It was a good win for the guys, Northern Colorado is not a bad team, and playing them (in Greeley), I was glad we can get out of here with a W," he said.
Now Montana will get set to prepare for North Dakota early Sunday morning. They will carry the momentum of back-to-back victories with them.
"It's great having a couple of W's and I hope our guys are starting to focus on that now," Nord said. "We have a lot of travel between now and getting there. We'll practice there late tomorrow night and try to get these guys ready to show up for a really early 9 a.m. match on Sunday."
Montana 5, @ Northern Colorado 2
Greeley, Colorado on March 6, 2015
Singles
1. Ben Gendron (UNC) def. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) 6-2, 7-5
2. Semion Branzburg (UM) def. Austin Mayo (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
3. Mitchel Knight (UNC) def. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
4. Victor Casadevall (UM) def. Eric Schuermans (UNC) 6-3, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2
5. Alexandr Rudenco (UM) def. Jacob Sheldon (UNC) 6-3, 6-4
6. Yannick Schmidl (UM) def. Cassell King (UNC) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles
1. Soltyka/Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Gendron/Mayo (UNC) 6-3
2. Branzburg/Schmidl (UM) def. Jordan Loughnan/King (UNC) 6-4
3. Zach Fisher/Casadevall (UM) def. Schuermans/Sheldon (UNC) 7-5
Players Mentioned
