Griz cap spring trip with 7-0 win

Tuesday, March 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

3:00 PM (MT)

Montana

Arizona Christian

3/21/2017 7:52:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team closed out its four-match spring break tour with a win over Arizona Christian on Tuesday, sweeping the Firestorm 7-0 on the hardcourts at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

With the win, Montana improves to 8-6 on the season, as the Griz get back in the W column for the first time since defeating Portland State on March 10 in Oregon.

Temperatures once again soared in the Arizona desert as Montana ground out a win that was closer than the score would indicate with three sets going into tiebreakers.

"We played pretty good matches today. They were better than I thought, and we just happen to be on the winning end of it," said Montana head coach Kris Nord. "It's been three, four days of hot tennis for these boys, and we've still got everybody healthy, so it was a good way to finish."

Grinding out wins in hot temperatures is exactly the reason Nord and the Griz made the trip down to Las Vegas and Phoenix over the break.

With the Big Sky tournament coming up in less than a month back in the Valley of the Sun, Nord says his squad needed the work in a different kind of environment than Missoula winter provides.

"Going from 45-50 degree tennis to 95-100 degree tennis is a different beast as far as who I can put out and who will play well," said Nord.

"I've got to have guys willing to grind and be fit because the points don't come fast like they do indoors. It's been a little change of gears on this trip, and I've been looking to see how guys handle that."

The Grizzlies took the doubles point to open the match with a 1-0 lead when Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and Alexander Canellopoulos paired up for the first time this season on court two and cruised to a 6-1 win.

UM sealed the doubles win when juniors Victor Casadevall and Yannick Schmidl paired up for only the second time this year on court three, winning easily, 6-2.

In singles, Canellopoulos followed up his strong doubles round by cruising to a 6-2, 6-0 win on court four for one of UM's most decisive wins of the afternoon.

"Most of the guys had to grind today. Alex played well and took care of business, but all the other matches were a little tougher than that," Nord added.

Casadevall, one of Montana's strongest up and coming players, took his first win of the year on court one with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Alberto Lapiedra.

Freshman Ludvig Hallgren also came in and made an impact for the Griz, picking up his first win of the spring in singles, grinding out a first-set tiebreaker to win 7-6, 7-5.

Junior Nacho Tejerina, who is also a Griz tennis newcomer after transferring last fall, also put together a clean performance in singles with a 6-1, 6-3 win on court five.

The Griz now prepare to close out the season with nothing but Big Sky Conference matchups, heading to Moscow to face Idaho on April 2 before hosting league contenders Sacramento State and Idaho State in Missoula the week of April 7 and 8.

"We have nothing but important matches coming up, and the guys know that," said Nord, with his sights on the Big Sky tourney.

"The message is to get back to Phoenix. We've got a lot of work to do to make that happen. We'll get back, have a few days off, and go back to work."

Montana 7, Arizona Christian 0
Mar 21, 2017 at Phoenix, Ariz. (GCU Tennis Facility)

Singles competition
1. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. LAPIEDRA, Alberto (ACU) 6-2, 7-5
2. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) def. DOUILLAC, Enzo (ACU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-4
3. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. BALDERRAMA, Marcelo (ACU) 6-3, 7-6
4. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. GALEFFI, Gabo (ACU) 6-2, 6-0
5. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. WHEELER, Scott (ACU) 6-1, 6-3
6. HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) def. MOORE, Seth (ACU) 7-6, 7-5

Doubles competition
1. LAPIEDRA, Alberto/ MOORE, Seth (ACU) def. KORKH, Max/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 6-2
2. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex/ MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) def. SUAREZ, Ezequiel/ DOUILLAC, Enzo (ACU) 6-1
3. CASADEVALL, Victor/SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. WHEELER, Scott/ BALDERRAMA, Marcelo (ACU) 6-2

Match Notes
Montana 8-6
Arizona Christian University 11-6