Griz claw past Eastern Washington 6-1

Saturday, April 9

Missoula, Mont.

2:00 PM

Montana

Eastern Washington *

4/9/2016 7:16:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: gogriz.com

Once again it wasn't the smoothest of sails for the Montana men's tennis team, but a win is a win, and the Griz picked up their fourth straight, defeating Eastern Washington 6-1 on another postcard afternoon at the Lindsay Tennis Center.

With the win, Montana improves to 6-2 in Big Sky play and 7-6 overall with only three matches remaining in the regular season (two of which are at home), heading into the Big Sky tournament.

Like they did against Northern Colorado on Friday, the Griz cruised to one victory in the doubles competition, buy had to scrap to complete the point. The singles wasn't a cakewalk either, with mostly tight matches across the board.

"That felt like a 4-3 win all the way, starting with the doubles," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

"I probably sound like a broken record, but just like yesterday, we played great in one dubs match - number two dubs went out and played the best match of the year for them - and then we struggled at one and three. We were lucky, because if we don't get the doubles point - those guys were already pretty scrappy - it would have been really hard to get the win."

The number two pairing of Victor Casadevall and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming breezed to victory in the first doubles match of the day, defeating EWU' Vuckovic/Bringold pair 6-0.

"Victor and I really focused on starting fast today," said Mimnagh-Fleming. "It's kind of taken us a while to get into it, but today we came out fast, had good energy, and it was easy from there. We played really well."

Montana wouldn't clinch the doubles point until Yannick Schmidl and Alexander Canellopoulos pulled away with the 7-6 win at No. 1 in the tiebreaker.

"I'm frustrated because I feel like we should be winning it before the tiebreaker," added Coach Nord. "Were playing a little, undisciplined I guess would be the best word, and that has to get better or it will hurt us."

No matter how long it took them, the win for Schmidl and Canellopoulos keeps them undefeated in doubles play, moving to 10-0 at the No. 1 position, the Big Sky's best mark.

It also gave the Griz a crucial 1-0 advantage heading into the singles competition where the matches didn't come any easier for UM.

Mimnagh-Fleming battled through a sickness on Friday against UNC in posting the team's only loss, but did a complete 180 on Saturday, sweeping his opposition in both the singles and doubles.

The junior Irishman picked up the first singles win of the afternoon for Montana, cruising to a 6-1, 6-3 win at the No. 2 position.

"We have to go out and play a little better than we did today in doubles, keep grinding at the results, and go to conference with a bit of a win streak," said Mimnagh-Fleming of his team's battle.

Canellopoulos played three sets of tennis at No. 4 in what must be close to record time, falling 0-6 in the first set, before storming back to take the next two sets 6-1, 6-1 to put the Griz up 3-0.

Casadevall battled to a 6-4, 7-5 win at the No. 5 spot. The sophomore Spaniard is now on a 10-match winning streak, and remains undefeated in Big Sky play. His win put the Griz up 4-0 and clinched the victory for Montana.

Yannick Schmidl had an uncharacteristically down day in singles, dropping only his second league match of the season 3-6, 4-6 in the No. 3 spot to give Montana their only loss of the afternoon.

The match of the day was in the No. 1 spot though, with senior Semion Branzburg grappling with EWU's Victor Pereira in a match reminiscent of classic John McEnroe/Jimmy Connors showdowns, filled with plenty of intensity, dramatic shots and key decisions from the official.

Branzburg jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the firs set, only to see Pereira battle back to tie the match. The senior from Israel eventually pulled away for the 6-4 win before battling to another 6-4 victory in the second set to claim the win at No. 1.

The Griz now prepare to host Portland State and Montana State next Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17 in Missoula, in what will be two more crucial Big Sky matches.

Montana 6
Eastern Washington 1

Singles competition
1. Semion Branzburg (UM) def. Victor Pereira (EWU) 6-4, 6-4
2. Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Vuk Vuckovic (EWU) 6-1, 6-3
3. Wacil Bendjelti (EWU) def. Yannick Schmidl (UM) 3-6, 4-6
4. Alex Canellopoulos (UM) def. Eduardo Bringold (EWU) 0-6, 6-1, 6-1
5. Victor Casadevall (UM) def. Luke Ness (EWU) 6-4, 7-5
6. Tomasz Soltyka (UM) def. Rendell Burghart (EWU) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3

Doubles competition
1. Yannick Schmidl / Alex Canellopoulos (UM) def. Victor Pereira/ Wacil Bendjelti (EWU) 7-6 (7-2)
2. Victor Casadevall / Peter Mimnagh-Fleming (UM) def. Vuk Vuckovic / Eduardo Bringold (EWU) 6-0
3. Semion Branzburg / Tomasz Soltyka (UM) def. Luke Ness / Rendell Burghart (EWU) 7-6 (9-7)

Order of finish:
Singles: 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, 1
Doubles: 2, 1, 3