Griz fall to Wildcats, take No. 4 seed at tourney

Sunday, April 24

Ogden, Utah

11:00 a.m.

Montana

Weber State *

4/24/2016 5:38:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: gogriz.com

TOURNAMENT INFO

The No. 3 Montana men's tennis team missed an opportunity to capture a share of the Big Sky regular season championship on Sunday, falling 4-0 to the No. 1 ranked Weber State Wildcats on senior day in Ogden, Utah.

The Grizzlies fall to 8-3 in Big Sky play (9-7 overall) and move into a tie with Northern Arizona for third place on the league table. With the Lumberjacks holding the head-to-head advantage, Montana heads to the conference championship tournament as the No. 4 seed.

The Wildcats claimed the regular season Big Sky crown with a 10-1 league record (12-7 overall), and will travel to the conference tourney as the No. 1 seed.

"They're a good team. There is a reason they're 10-1," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

Montana fell under the gun early in the match when the previously undefeated doubles pair of Yannick Schmidl and Alexander Canellopoulos picked up their first loss in conference play, falling 6-1 to WSU's Cooper/Goswami pair at No. 1.

The Griz had an opportunity to tie the doubles competition on the No. 2 court, with Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and Victor Casadevall pushing WSU's Fought/Gewert pair to the brink, before falling 7-5.

"We had a shot to win and we didn't quite do it," added Nord. "We've snuck a lot of doubles points out over the last three weeks, and these guys are too good to sneak it out. You've got to go earn it, and we didn't."

With the doubles point lost, the Grizzlies found themselves down 1-0 heading into the singles competition where UM put up a battle, but was not able to pull out a win.

Mimnagh-Fleming picked up his second loss of the day on the No. 2 court, falling 6-3, 6-2 to Todd Fought of Weber Sate.

Schmidl dropped his first set on the No. 3 court to Stefan Cooper 6-4, and made a push to tie the match in the second set before falling 7-5 to put UM down 3-0.

Weber State sealed the victory on the No. 6 court, where Sanjay Goswami went up on Tomasz Soltyka 6-4 in the first set. Soltyka made a change for the second set, but eventually fell 7-6, and the Wildcats would walk away with the 4-0 victory.

Semion Branzburg, Alexander Canellopoulos and Victor Casadevall each had their matches halted once the win was clinched for the Wildcats to save bodies for the conference tournament, scheduled for April 29-May 1 at the Gold River Racquet Club in Gold River, California, just outside of Sacramento.

As the No. 4 seed in the Big Sky tourney, the Griz will face the No. 5 seed, and tournament host, Sacramento State Hornets on April 29 at 2 p.m. PT (3 p.m. MT). The winner of the UM/SSU match will advance to face either No. 1 Weber State or No. 2 Idaho in the tournament semifinal. The highest remaining seed will face the Vandals, while the lowest remaining seed faces the Wildcats.

The Grizzlies will feel good about their tournament draw, having defeated the Hornets 6-1 back on April 4, in Sacramento.

"We put a spanking on them last time. It's going to be tough to do it again, but that's our goal," says Nord.

"I feel like we're a better team down there, I really do, at sea level. We've created a little bit of a hurdle by having to play three days in a row down there, and that's fine.

"Right now there's one day we're worried about and that's Sac. State. They're going to be tough. I think they're healthier than they were when we were down there, so they're going to have another guy in the lineup. We're going to have a challenge on our plate, and that's the way it should be at championships."

Tennis Match Results
Montana vs Weber State
Apr 24, 2016 at

Weber State 4, Montana 0

Singles competition

1. BRANZBURG, Semion (UM) vs. GEWERT, Jakub (WSU) no result
2. FOUGHT, Todd (WSU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) 6-3, 6-2
3. COOPER, Stefan (WSU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 6-4, 7-5
4. CANELLOPOLOS, A. (UM) vs. CHEN, Hou-En (WSU) no result
5. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) vs. BARLOW, Landon (WSU) no result
6. GOSWAMI, Sanjay (WSU) def. SOLTYKA, Tomasz (UM) 6-4, 7-6

Doubles competition

1. COOPER, Stefan/GOSWAMI, Sanjay (WSU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOLOS, A. (UM) 6-1
2. FOUGHT, Todd/GEWERT, Jakub (WSU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P./CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) 7-5
3. BRANZBURG, Semion/SOLTYKA, Tomasz (UM) vs. CHEN, Hou-En/BARLOW, Landon (WSU) no result

Match Notes:
Order of Finish
Singles: 2, 3, 6
Doubles: 1, 2