Griz set for key league matches with plenty of momentum

Last week, the Montana men's tennis team embarked on a road trip to Idaho State and over to Sacramento State with one primary goal: win their way into one of the Big Sky's top six spots necessary to earn a trip to the league's postseason tournament.

With a 7-0 sweep of Idaho State, and a 6-1 throttling of the No. 2 ranked Hornets, the Griz ticked those boxes and now enter this week's home stand sitting at No. 5 on the league table, primed to make a run at the postseason tourney with a pair of must-win matches on tap.

With momentum on their side and a flawless weather forecast to boot, the Griz (5-6, 4-2 BSC) will host the Big Sky's No. 9 Northern Colorado Bears (6-12, 3-5 BSC) on Friday, April 8 at the Robert O. Lindsay Tennis Center in the heart of the University of Montana campus, with the first serve going up at 2 p.m.

UM then plays host to Eastern Washington (8-14, 4-3 BSC) on Saturday, April 9, a team nipping at the heels of the Griz, currently sitting at No. 6 on the conference table. The Griz/Eagles match is also scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at the Lindsay Tennis Center.

"All season we talk about getting better every week, then April is go-time," said Montana assistant coach Jason Brown. "We have nothing but conference matches left that will hopefully lead to some victories, and then into the Big Sky Championship. So all the preparation in the fall comes down to this."

The Grizzlies will bring a team full of hot hands to the courts this weekend.

Always of vital importance in the race to four points is the doubles series, where UM's No. 1 pair of Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl will look to defend their Big Sky best 8-0 record.

Schmidl has been a bright spot for the Grizzlies in the singles as well, winning five of his last six conference singles matches.

"I'm feeling really confident right now," says the German sophomore. "I feel like I can solve the problem of the other player, can find a solution to his game, and find out what he doesn't like. So I'm very happy with how it's going."

He also says he and his teammates will need to bring that confidence to the court heading into two weeks of tough competition.

"I think it's on us," Schmidl adds. "All the matches we have at home, the four we have coming up, are all matches we have to win from our perspective. If we play our A game, I think we can win."

Also enjoying a hot hand for the Griz right now is fellow sophomore Victor Casadevall, who leads the conference at the No. 5 singles spot, having won nine of his last 10 matches, and is riding an eight-match win streak heading into Friday's showdown with UNC.

With Casadevall and Schmidl performing solidly in the middle of the singles lineup at No. 5 and No. 3, respectively, Montana's order is looking dangerous 1-6.

"The doubles point is again key. If we get that like we did on the road the momentum leads into all good things in the singles," added Coach Brown. "It starts at the top with our senior leadership, and the rest of these guys like Yannick and Victor have been pretty flawless lately."

"I think the thing that people forget is that the No. 6 point counts the same as the No. 1 point. It's a race to four in these matches, and if we start off with the doubles point, we've got some spots we've been able to count on down the line, and it's made all the difference in the world."

In the guessing game that is the Big Sky men's tennis race, Northern Colorado comes to Missoula winners of two of their last three matches, splitting a road series with Southern Utah and Northern Arizona last week. The Bears defeated SUU 7-0, and fell to a surging NAU squad 5-2, the same results the Grizzlies posted against those programs earlier this season.

The Eagles come to the Garden City on Saturday on a seven game slide, but having played only one match against a Big Sky opponent, falling 7-0 to Sacramento State on March 23.

Eastern Washington brings the league's No. 2 overall singles player with them in Robert Doula, who carries an 8-1 record in the first singles position.

Montana has split the No. 1 singles position this year, with Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (2-1) and Semion Branzburg (4-4) each seeing action in the first slot.

"We realize they're going to be motivated and very capable opponents littered with good players, and it's going to take our best effort to beat them. There's a lot of parity in the Big Sky now, and these teams will come in real motivated so we're ready to go," added coach Brown.

In the unlikely event poor weather moves into Missoula this weekend, matches will be moved to the PEAK Racquet Club indoor facility.

Griz set for key league matches with plenty of momentum

Players Mentioned

Semion Branzburg

Alex Canellopoulos

Victor Casadevall

Peter Mimnagh-Fleming

Yannick Schmidl

University of Montana Athletics