Casadevall finishes weekend undefeated as Griz fall to UNLV

Saturday, March 26

Las Vegas, Nev.

11:00 AM (MT)

Montana

UNLV

Casadevall finishes weekend undefeated as Griz fall to UNLV

3/26/2016 6:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: gogriz.com

The Montana Grizzlies men's tennis squad once again put up a fight, but was eventually upended by a powerful UNLV team on their home courts in Las Vegas, falling 6-1 on Saturday to wrap up a three-match tour of Utah and Nevada.

The loss puts the Griz at 3-6 overall, but they remain at 2-2 in Big Sky play with the team goal of making the Big Sky tournament squarely in sight.

Montana sophomore Victor Casadevall picked up the lone win for the Grizzlies, completing an undefeated weekend for the Spaniard at 3-0, which included two wins over Mountain West opponents.

The Griz were without the services of one of their veteran players, with Peter Mimnagh-Fleming sitting the match out with a minor injury suffered Friday night. Coach Kris Nord relied on a shuffled lineup to take on the Rebels, and came away happy with the effort.

"Across the board we competed pretty well, but those guys are good," said Nord. "If you don't play well, the match is over quickly. Without Pete in the lineup I think we competed real well."

In the doubles, UNLV clinched the point in the No. 2 and No. 3 matches, with the Rebel's Gage-Brown/Neto team defeating UM's Branzburg/Casadevall pair 6-1. UM's Soltyka/Barcot pair also fell at No. 3 6-3 in the clincher, and the No. 1 match went unfinished.

"We didn't play too badly in the doubles at all," added Nord. "The scores didn't indicate the fact that we were right in it, but we were."

In the singles, Casadevall continued to impress, playing up a spot at No. 4 due to Mimnagh-Fleming's injury, and still picking up a 7-5, 6-4 victory over UNLV's Adam Gage-Brown.

Yannick Schmidl also continued to battle for good results, pushing the Rebels' Alexandr Cozbinov to an extra set before falling 3-6, 6-0, 10-8.

"I feel like we used this weekend real well. It wasn't quite the number of wins we wanted, but we're playing better, and we need to be in that position right now," said Coach Nord.

"All our goals are in front of us starting a week from now in Pocatello. We have to go get after Idaho State."

RESULTS
UNLV 6, Montana 1

Doubles Competition
1. Amilon/Alberts (UNLV) UNF. Schmidl/Canellopoulos (UM) 3-4
2. Gage-Brown/Neto (UNLV) def. Branzburg/Casadevall (UM) 6-1
3. Cozbinov/Solberg (UNLV) def. Soltyka/Barcot (UM) 6-3

Singles Competition
1. Jakob Amilon (UNLV) def. Semion Branzburg (UM) 6-3, 7-6 (4)
2. Alexandr Cozbinov (UNLV) def. Yannick Schmidl (UM) 3-6, 6-0, 10-8
3. Ruben Alberts (UNLV) def. Alexander Canellopoulos (UM) 6-3, 6-0
4. Victor Casadevall (UM) def. Adam Gage-Brown (UNLV) 7-5, 6-4
5. Evaldo Neto (UNLV) def. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) 6-4, 6-4
6. Richard Solberg (UNLV) def. Petar Barcot (UM) 6-1, 6-3