Griz head to California looking to reclaim title

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Two years ago to the week, the Montana Grizzlies men's tennis team got its first taste of Big Sky glory, winning the program's first ever conference tournament by defeating the Weber State Wildcats 4-0 in Gold River, California.

On Friday, the Griz return to the Gold River Racquet Club looking to reclaim the title Big Sky Champions as UM enters the league tourney as the No. 4 seed ready to face off against the No. 5 (and home town) Sacramento State Hornets at 3 p.m. MT.

Gold River is a place where the Griz have seen success, not only in 2014, but earlier in the 2016 season as well. Montana put in one of its most complete performances of the season back on April 4, defeating the, then, No. 2 Hornets 6-1 in the California heat.

In order to play their way back to the championship, the Griz know they have to go through Sac. State once again, who return key players to their lineup.

"It was a great match for us then, it just makes this one a little harder," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

"I'm looking at it as if we were underdogs, because I truly think we are. They're at home, they have their full lineup, they haven't played a match in two weeks, they're rested, so we've got to play well. We've got to go fight for our lives."

The Griz finished the season 8-3 in conference play (9-7 overall), falling to top-ranked Weber State 4-0 on Sunday in Utah.

After a quick turnaround, the Griz head to Sacramento on Wednesday before taking the court on Friday for a potential three-day run back to the championship, scheduled for Sunday.

Montana will once again look to control the doubles point against the Hornets, a task they accomplished three weeks ago with a pair of strong 6-4 wins from the Yannick Schmidl/Alexander Canellopoulos pair at No. 1, and the senior duo of Semion Branzburg and Tomasz Soltyka.

For Branzburg and Soltyka, the Big Sky championship will be old hat to the seniors who were both members of 2014's Championship team.

Schmidl and Canellopoulos enter the tournament as the Big Sky's No. 1 doubles pair, undefeated in Big Sky play, and sitting on an 11-1 overall record this season. To continue their winning ways, they will need to go through Sac. State's Losbergs/Zemaitelis pair, currently ranked the No. 2 doubles pair in the entire Northwest Region. The Grizzly duo defeated the Hornet duo 6-4 back on April 4.

Victor Casadevall enters the tournament undefeated at 9-0 in the singles, sitting on top of the Big Sky Conference table on the No. 5 court. The Hornets are expected to return Christopher Clayton to the lineup at No. 5 to face Casadevall, having missed the previous meeting between the two schools.

Should the Griz defeat Sacramento State, they will advance on to face either Weber State or Idaho in the semifinal.

The first serve on Friday goes up at 3 p.m. MT (2 p.m. PT).

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Players Mentioned

Semion Branzburg

Alex Canellopoulos

Victor Casadevall

Yannick Schmidl

Tomasz Soltyka

University of Montana Athletics