Griz show well in loss to Utes

Sunday, February 19

Salt Lake City, Utah

6:00 PM

Montana

Utah

2/19/2017 10:14:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Montana Sports Information

A week after diving head first into Big Sky Conference play, Montana head men's tennis coach Kris Nord wanted to test his young squad against one of the region's hottest programs to build experience before league play resumes in two weeks.

Nord got what he asked for from the University of Utah Sunday evening in Salt Lake City, where the Grizzlies put up a strong showing before eventually falling to the Utes 7-0 in a one-off match at the George S. Eccles Tennis Center.

"I feel like we're getting better which is what we want," said Nord.

"We talked about not focusing on results against the Utah, just focus on controlling what we're doing and I feel like we did that a little bit better. Now we just have to keep going that direction."

Montana came out strong in the doubles competition to start the match, with UM's Victor Casadevall and Ignacio Tejerina duo took four games from Utah's Hankuliyev/Shainyan duo before falling 6-4 on the No. 3 court in an up and down match.

On the No. 2 court, Montana's Max Korkh and Peter Mimnagh-Fleming were showing well, down 6-5 to the Utes' Weverink/Micevski pair as the round wore on. But the pair were unable to finish before Utah claimed the doubles point on court No. 1 with a 6-2 win over Yannick Schmidl and Alexander Canellopoulos, their first doubles loss of the season.

In the singles competition, Grizzly freshman Max Korkh showed his impressive first-year form, taking the first set 6-4 over Utah's Joe Wolley on the No. 4 court. Korkh then fell 6-2 in the second set before dropping a third set grinder, 10-5.

Utah would go on to sweep the singles competition to take the 7-0 team win over the Griz.

Montana returns home next Saturday, Feb. 25, in a non-conference match against Montana State at the PEAK Racquet Club in Missoula.

Utah 7, Montana 0

Singles competition
1. Micevski, David (UU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 6-4, 6-1
2. Little, Dan (UU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) 6-0, 6-3
3. Santiago, Sierra (UU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) 6-4, 6-2
4. Wolley, Joe (UU) def. KORKH, Max (UM) 4-6, 6-2, 10-5
5. Shainyan, Slava (UU) def. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) 6-4, 6-2
6. Weverink, Egbert (UU) def. HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) 6-3, 6-4
Extra match: Hankuliyev, Azat (UU) def. SCHOENHERR, Jacob (UM) 6-4, 0-6, 10-4

Doubles competition
1. Woolley, Joe/Little, Dan (UU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) 6-2
2. KORKH, Max/MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) vs. Weverink, Egbert/ Micevski, David (UU) 6-5 DNF
3. Hankuliyev, Azat/Shainyan, Slava (UU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 6-4