Griz defeat Portland State 6-1 on the road

Friday, March 10

Portland, Ore.

1:00 PM (MT)

Montana

Portland State

3/10/2017 7:17:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Montana Sports Information

After dropping a tight Big Sky match to Northern Arizona last week for the team's second conference loss of the season, the Montana men's tennis squad was in need of a league win in the final weekend of play before spring break.

The Griz (7-3, 3-2 BSC) did just that, traveling to Oregon and coming away with a decisive 6-1 victory over Portland State (2-9, 0-4 BSC) in a conference dual match against the Vikings at Club Green Meadows, across the river from Portland in Vancouver, Wash.

"That was a really important win for us to get back on track," said Griz assistant coach Jason Brown.

"We came out fired up, and the guys did almost everything right. We're happy with how they responded in both doubles and singles. I thought we played inspired tennis today."

Montana's newly combined doubles pair of junior Victor Casadevall and true freshman Ludvig Hallgren picked up where they left off against Radford on Monday, beating PSU's Lopez/Larson team 6-2 on court No. 3 to get UM off on the right foot in the doubles competition.

Last year's Big Sky MVP Nathan Boniel and his partner Tommy Edwards then leveled the score 1-1, defeating UM's No. 1 pairing of Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and Max Korkh.

But Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl - the Grizzlies' strongest doubles pair – picked up their third-straight win on the No. 2 court to seal the dubs point for Montana, getting the team out to an early 1-0 lead in the dual.

That momentum carried over into the singles round with Canellopoulos breezing past PSU's Yousef Abdo on court No. 5 in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1 for his fourth-straight singles win as Montana's depth showed its strength.

"I think that was Alex's best match of the season. Every time I looked up he was taking another game," said Brown.

"We have really strong players at the bottom of our lineup this year, which has been a calling card of Montana tennis for the last decade. We were great today at four, five, and six."

Boniel then handed the Griz their only defeat of the day on the No. 1 court, beating Schmidl in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2 to make it a 2-1 UM lead.

But the Griz kept the pressure on when Casadevall swept past Edwards on the No. 2 court with little trouble, 6-3, 6-2 to put UM up 3-1 overall in the dual.

"Boniel was tough today. He's awfully good, especially on his home court. He had answers for everything we threw at him, but the rest of our guys played really well," added Brown.

Korkh then clinched the match win for the Griz on the No. 4 court, grinding out a break point in the first set to take a 7-6 win before cruising to a 6-0 win in the second set, putting UM up for good, 4-1.

Montana then finished off the match with a pair of wins on the three and six court, with Mimnagh-Fleming storming back from a 3-6 loss in the first set to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 on No. 3 and Ignacio Tejerina taking a 7-6, 6-2 win on No. 6.

With two-straight wins worth of momentum in their pockets, the Griz now prepare to test their meddle against the No. 4 ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys during a spring break trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix March 17-21. UM will also face UNLV in Vegas before heading to Arizona to face Grand Canyon and Arizona Christian.

Montana 6, Portland State 1
Mar 10, 2017 at Vancouver, Wash. (Club Green Meadows)

Singles competition
1. BONIEL, Nathan (PSU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 6-1, 6-2
2. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. EDWARDS, Tommy (PSU) 6-3, 6-2
3. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) def. GOLDNER, Scott (PSU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1
4. KORKH, Max (UM) def. LOPEZ, Ethan (PSU) 7-6 (7-1), 6-0
5. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. ABDO, Yousef (PSU) 6-0, 6-1
6. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. LARSON, Sam (PSU) 7-6 (7-2), 6-2

Doubles competition
1. BONIEL, Nathan/EDWARDS, Tommy (PSU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P./KORKH, Max (UM) 6-3
2. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. GOLDNER, Scott/RISENHOOVER, Russell (PSU) 7-5
3. CASADEVALL, Victor/HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) def. LOPEZ, Ethan/LARSON, Sam (PSU) 6-2

Match Notes
Montana 7-3, 3-2 BSC
Portland State 2-9, 0-4 BSC
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (5,1,2,4,3,6)