Montana
Idaho
Montana falls against Idaho
4/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
In a battle of two 6-2 teams, the Idaho Vandals defended their home court and defeated the Montana Grizzlies men's tennis team 4-3 on Saturday afternoon.
The Grizzlies (7-8/6-3 BSC) had a chance to win the doubles point, with Tomasz Soltyka and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming ahead at No. 1, and Semion Branzburg and Yannick Schmidl ahead at No. 2.
But a comeback from Idaho's No. 2 team, paired with an Idaho (13-8/7-2 BSC) victory at No. 3 gave the hosts the very important doubles point. Coach Kris Nord thought his guys had a chance.
"I really felt like we could have won the doubles point at one and two," Nord said. "We were ahead and lost a break at No. 2 and ended up losing it 6-4."
In singles, once again Montana had chances to win the match. Semion Branzburg cruised to a victory at No. 2 singles, but Idaho kept a 2-1 lead with a win at No. 1. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and Victor Casadevall both won their first sets, but couldn't hang on to win the matches.
"Peter and Victor, they had chances if we could have just got a little edge going in to the second set in either of the matches going I felt like we were going to win the match," Nord said. "They had two tough opponents and we just didn't quite pull of either of those three setters."
After the match had been decided, freshmen Alexandr Rudenco and Yannick Schmidl both earned victories to push the final score to 4-3. The duo, playing at No. 5 and 6 respectively, both improved their conference records to an impressive 8-1.
Nord pointed at dropping the doubles point and the middle line-up matches as good opportunities for Montana to win the match, they just couldn't quite take advantage of them.
"It's a combination of the two," Nord said. "The doubles point could have won the match, or if we could have won one of those close three setters at the middle of the line-up."
And while the Griz missed a couple opportunities, Nord was still pleased with the effort against a talented Idaho squad.
"Overall, I was happy," Nord said. "Our guys fought well and Idaho is a good team, but one we wouldn't mind playing again down the road."
The match was played indoors at Lewiston, Idaho. The Griz have to travel all the way to Cheney, Washington Saturday night for a hitting session at Eastern Washington's facilities. Nord hopes his team will be re-energized before taking on an underrated Eagles team.
"We've got a long drive to get up there and get on the courts tonight," Nord said. "I'm just worried about our guys recharging and getting ready to play, because we play early tomorrow at 10:30, so that's my concern now, is to get there and get them rested. We're going to have to play well tomorrow, Eastern is a tough team at home."
Montana 3, @ Idaho 4
Lewiston, Idaho
April 11, 2015
Singles
1. Odon Barta (UI) def. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) 6-1, 6-4
2. Semion Branzburg (UM) def. Felipe Fonseca (UI) 6-4, 6-2
3. Cristobal Ramos (UI) def. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
4. Mark Kovacs (UI) def. Victor Casadevall (UM) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
5. Alexandr Rudenco (UM) def. Jackson Varney (UI) 7-6, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7)
6. Yannick Schmidl (UM) def. Alberto Sanz (UI) 7-6, 6-1
Doubles
1. Soltyka/Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Ramos/Kovacs (UI) 6-4
2. Barta/Fonseca (UI) def. Branzburg/Schmidl (UM) 6-4
3. Varney/Sanz (UI) def. Zach Fisher/Casadevall (UM) 6-4
Players Mentioned
