Griz fight, fall to Hornets at Big Sky tourney

Friday, April 29

Gold River, Calif.

3:00 PM (MT)

Montana

Sacramento State

4/29/2016 7:53:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: gogriz.com

The Montana Grizzlies men's tennis team had three big factors working against them as they faced the Sacramento State Hornets in the first round of the Big Sky tournament.

One: the Hornets were out for revenge after the Griz defeated them 6-1 earlier in the season. Two: the Hornets were essentially playing at home at the Gold River Racquet Club in Gold River, Calif., and three: the Hornets had two weeks of rest heading into the tourney, allowing their full lineup to return from injury.

While the Griz put in a late comeback attempt, it was not enough as UM fell to SSU 4-2 to finish the season tied for third at 8-3 in the Big Sky, and 9-8 overall.

"I was proud of the guys," said head coach Kris Nord. "I really felt like if we could have got through today I would have loved our shot at Weber, but overall, a pretty dang good season. I'm proud of them.

"Like I told them afterward, there's a pretty fine line between going on and not, and we were on the wrong side of it unfortunately."

Montana fell down in the match early, dropping the doubles point 2-0. Victor Casadevall and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming were defeated in an uncharacteristically quick 6-1 match on the No. 2 court, followed by Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl falling to the regionally ranked doubles duo of Losbergs/Zemaitelis 6-3.

Schmidl and Canellopoulos finish their season at No. 1 doubles with an impressive 11-2 overall record.

With the two doubles wins, the Hornets took a 1-0 lead early, and it was an uphill climb for the Griz from there.

Senior Tomasz Soltyka began the Griz comeback in what was his final day in maroon and silver, taking the win in the first singles match 6-4, 7-5 on the No. 6 court.

In order to complete the comeback, Montana needed four wins in the singles series. Soltyka's win put UM up 1-0, but the Hornets then came back and took the next two points.

Senior Semion Branzburg capped his career at UM with a 6-3, 6-2 loss on the No. 1 court to Mikus Losbergs. Alex Canellopoulos then fell on the No. 4 court to the Hornet's Dom Miller 6-1, 6-4 and the Griz found themselves down 3-1.

Victor Casadevall completed an undefeated Big Sky season on the No. 5 court, defeating Christopher Clayton 6-4, 6-1 to close the Hornet's lead to 3-2.

"Victor had a ridiculous season," added Nord. "In his one uncompleted match against Weber he was up 5-1 in the third, so he's going to be moving up. He's just been rock solid for us."

The Hornets sealed the win on the No. 3 court in a marathon match between Yannick Schmidl and Joaquin Marquez that Shmidl lost 6-3, 7-6, 12-10 in a tiebreaker.

Sacramento State moves on to face the No. 1 seed Weber State Wildcats in the Big Sky semifinal.

Results
Sacramento State vs Montana
Apr 29, 2016 at Gold River, Calif
(Gold River Racquet Club)

Sacramento State 4, Montana 2

Singles competition
1. LOSBERGS, Mikus (SAC) def. BRANZBURG, Semion (UM) 6-3, 6-2
2. ZEMAITELIS, Kasparas (SAC) vs. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) no result
3. MARQUEZ, Joaquin (SAC) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 6-3, 7-6 (12-10)
4. MILLER, Dom (SAC) def. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) 6-1, 6-4
5. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. CLAYTON, Christopher (SAC) 6-4, 6-1
6. SOLTYKA, Tomasz (UM) def. HALL, Donald (SAC) 6-4, 7-5

Doubles competition
1. LOSBERGS, Mikus/ZEMAITELIS, Kasparas (SAC) def. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex/SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 6-3
2. MILLER, Dom/HALL, Donald (SAC) def. CASADEVALL, Victor/MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) 6-1
3. CLAYTON, Christopher/VOLLATH, Uli (SAC) vs. BRANZBURG, Semion/SOLTYKA, Tomasz (UM) no result

Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (6,1,4,5,3)
Big Sky Conference Mens Quarterfinals