Griz tennis opens Big Sky play this weekend

The Montana men's tennis team heads for the Arizona sunshine this week, getting in a final nonconference tune-up against Grand Canyon University (5-4) in Phoenix on Friday, before heading north to Flagstaff to open Big Sky play against Northern Arizona (2-6, 0-1 BSC) on Sunday.

Revenge will be fresh on the minds of the Grizzlies, who were upset by NAU 4-2 in the first round of last year's Big Sky Conference tournament.

But the Griz will have to face a strong GCU team first, in UM's first outdoor action of the spring season. The Antelopes are currently holding a 5-4 record in the WAC, and have claimed nonconference wins over a pair of Big Sky teams, including a 7-0 victory over Montana State and a 6-1 win over Idaho State.

Montana (1-1) enters the weekend's play with the momentum of a 5-2 win over the Bobcats in Bozeman last Saturday. With a solid victory under their belts, Griz head coach Kris Nord likes how his team looks headed into conference play.

"After MSU, I really liked how we were playing as a team," said Nord.

"This is a hard trip because this will be our first competitive outdoor tennis, then we go up to 7,000 feet, indoors at their new facility, so it will be a challenge. But I think our guys will be motivated.

"I'm more focused on us going out there and being ready to play right off the bat like we did at MSU in doubles and get the doubles point then go fight like heck in the singles," Nord added.

At MSU, the Griz swept the doubles point to jump out to a 1-0 lead. Yannick Schmidl and Alexander Canellopoulos picked up the first win, followed by a win for Semion Branzburg and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming. Tomasz Soltyka and Victor Casadevall cemented the doubles point for the Griz.

The only other action of the spring for the Griz was a tough 7-0 loss at the hands of the Pac-12's Utah Utes.

The Grizzlies will be focused on winning the doubles point at Northern Arizona, and will have to go through the Lumberjack pairing of Eden Peleg and Lucas Taylor to do so. Taylor/Peleg are currently 3-0 in doubles, sitting second in the conference standings.

In singles, the Griz will look to add wins, with Branzburg, Canellopoulos, Casadevall and Schmidl earning victories at MSU.

Action at GCU gets underway at 5:00 p.m., while the day will start early at 10:00 a.m. in Flagstaff.

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Players Mentioned

Semion Branzburg

Alex Canellopoulos

Victor Casadevall

Peter Mimnagh-Fleming

Yannick Schmidl

Tomasz Soltyka

University of Montana Athletics