Griz bounce back, cruise to 6-1 win at North Dakota

Sunday, February 12

Grand Forks, N.D.

8:00 AM (MT)

Montana

North Dakota

Griz bounce back, cruise to 6-1 win at North Dakota

2/12/2017 12:57:00 PM | Men's Tennis

UM UND Box

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team swept the doubles point and rattled off five-straight singles wins to bounce back from Thursday's loss at UNC to beat North Dakota 6-1 in Grand Forks on Sunday.

The win at the Choice Health & Fitness Center puts the Griz at 1-1 in Big Sky play after two matches and improves them to 3-1 after two weeks of action in the spring season. North Dakota, meanwhile, falls to 0-7.

The Grizzlies used the uncharacteristic loss at Northern Colorado as motivation in Grand Forks, winning four of the six singles matches in straight sets.

"We played better today. Northern Colorado is a tough place for the guys to play, indoor, fast and at altitude. We got a little nervous, and today, guys relaxed and played more to their abilities," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

"North Dakota is better this year, so we had some matches get pushed, but our guys responded."

Montana's three doubles teams swept past the Fighting Hawks to win the critical opening point of the match. UM's only difficulty came on the No. 2 court where UND's Misialek/Danyluk pair pushed the Grizzly pair of Max Korkh and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming before the UM pair eventually prevailed 7-5.

After facing difficulty in doubles rounds this past fall and last season, the Grizzlies are yet to drop a doubles point after four matches in 2017.

"Across the board, I think the chemistry on all three teams is great, and the guys are just playing well. We're returning the ball well and serving well, doubles has not been an issue at all," added Nord.

Unlike in Greeley two days previous, Montana kept the momentum of a doubles win rolling into the singles round, with only two of the six matches extended into a third set.

Ignacio Tejerina picked up the first win for UM on the No. 6 court in short order, 6-2, 6-2. Victor Casadevall returned to his winning ways after dropping his first Big Sky match in over a year on Thursday to win on the No. 3 court 6-2, 7-6.

Mimnagh-Fleming, UM's lone senior, cruised past UND's Alex Mailes 6-4, 6-1 for the Grizzlies' third-straight win, clinching the overall match for the Griz.

With the win in hand, Montana's only loss came on the No. 1 court when Yannick Schmidl dropped his first singles match of the year, falling to UND's Dustin Britton in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

After one week of Big Sky play, Montana will now get the chance to measure their improvement next Sunday, traveling to Salt Lake to take on the Pac-12's Utah Utes in nonconference action.

"We're not used to losing matches like we lost at UNC, so it was a downer for all the guys," said Nord. "But it was a good bounce back today, so now it's on to Utah. We'll get home and go back to work."

Montana 6, North Dakota 1

Singles competition
1. Britton, Dustin (UND) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
2. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) def. Mailes, Alex (UND) 6-4, 6-1
3. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. Misialek, Ty (UND) 6-2, 7-6
4. KORKH, Max (UM) def. Lau, Travis (UND) 6-4, 4-6, 10-3
5. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. Danyluk, Simon (UND) 7-6, 6-3
6. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. Hokanson, Matt (UND) 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: 6,3,2,5,4,1

Doubles competition
1. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. Lau, Travis/Britton, Dustin (UND) 6-2
2. KORKH, Max/MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) def. Misialek, Ty/Danyluk, Simon (UND) 7-5
3. CASADEVALL, Victor/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. Hokanson, Matt/Mailes, Alex (UND) 6-3