Comeback falls short as Lumberjacks beat Griz 4-3

Saturday, March 4

Missoula, Mont.

11:00 AM

Montana

Northern Arizona

3/4/2017 6:11:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Montana Sports Information

PDF Box Score

The Montana men's tennis team left everything on the court Saturday against a strong and deep Northern Arizona squad but couldn't overcome an early loss in the doubles round, leading to a 4-3 win for the Lumberjacks at the PEAK Racquet Club in Missoula on Saturday.

The loss gives Montana a split of their Big Sky Conference matches over the weekend, putting UM at 5-3 on the season and 2-2 in league play. Meanwhile, Northern Arizona picks up its first conference win of the season and moves to 4-4 overall.

"I'm encouraged," said Montana head coach Kris Nord after the tight loss. "I knew NAU is good. I knew the doubles point was going to be enormous, and it was. But we still had a chance to win, which was encouraging. I liked the fight we had."

In a similar situation to the match against Montana State last week, the Grizzlies came out firing in the singles round after falling behind 1-0 in the doubles. But unlike against MSU, Montana wasn't able to close out tight singles matches against the Jacks.

In doubles, Montana's Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl pair were reunited on the No. 2 court against NAU after Nord shuffled his lineup on Friday against Southern Utah.

Schmidl and Canellopoulos were leading NAU's Handel/Montano pair 4-3 late in the round, but Montana dropped two quick matches on the No. 1 and No. 3 court before the pair could seal the win, giving the Jacks the early 1-0 lead.

The Griz then tied the match at 1-1 to start the singles competition when Victor Casadevall cruised to a straight-sets win over Felix Schumann on court No. 2, 6-3, 6-0.

After Casadevall's win, the energy inside the PEAK reached its peak as the Griz looked to build momentum on courts one, three and four.

Yannick Schmidl, who was facing fellow German and former high school rival Tim Handel, went on the attack in the first set, going game-for-game with his NAU opponent before falling 6-4 to open the match. Handel made Schmidl pay for his aggression in the second set, wearing him down for a 6-2 win to take the straight-sets victory on the No. 1 court.

Montana freshman Max Korkh then went wire-to-wire on the No. 4 court, dropping a pair of tiebreakers 7-6, 7-5 to NAU's Sebastian Eguez that put the Jacks up 3-1, but the Griz weren't out of it yet.

Over on the No. 3 court, Peter Mimnagh-Fleming lost a first set tiebreaker 7-5, but rebounded in the second set to tie the match with a 6-4 win.

The UM senior then jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the third set, putting the Griz in the running for a comeback victory, but then dropped his next two games, losing the lead for good as NAU's Lucas Taylor claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 win. With the win on the No. 3 court, NAU clinched the team victory, pulling ahead 4-1.

"I like the fact the fact that both Pete and Yannick kept the pressure on and tried to go on offense instead of just hoping they miss," added Nord. "You have to go take charge, and I felt like they did that. That's what I want to see, and that's how we're going to get better."

Riding the momentum of UM's encouraging performances, Ignacio Tejerina and Alex Canellopoulos pulled out a pair of three-set victories on the No. 6 and No. 5 court to make the final score 4-3 for the visitors.

"I like how our guys supported each other. You have to have that in college tennis, and they did it to the end," said Nord of the electric environment at the Peak.

"We just need to keep moving in the right direction with doing the little things, because we're not far from being a really good team and we're not far from being a very average team. It's just going to come down to how we work on the details in the next few weeks."

Montana returns to action on Monday, taking on Radford University from Virginia. Monday's match against Radford (1-4, 0-1) is the first of a four-match road trip through the Northwest for the Highlanders, who will also take on Idaho, Gonzaga, and Eastern Washington in the coming week.

The Griz return to Big Sky play on March 10 in Oregon, facing a crucial test against Portland State as UM aims for a top-six league finish that would earn them a trip to the conference championship.

Northern Arizona vs Montana
Mar 04, 2017 at Missoula, Mont.
(PEAK Racquet Club)

Northern Arizona 4, Montana 3

Singles competition
1. Handel,Tim (NAU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) 6-4, 6-2
2. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. Schumann,Felix (NAU) 6-3, 6-0
3. Taylor,Lucas (NAU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
4. Eguez,Sebastian (NAU) def. KORKH, Max (UM) 7-6, 7-5
5. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. Montano,Ruben (NAU) 5-7, 6-4, 10-8
6. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. Fisher,Thomas (NAU) 7-6, 3-6, 10-8

Doubles competition
1. Taylor,Lucas/Eguez,Sebastian (NAU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P./KORKH, Max (UM) 6-2
2. Montano,Ruben/Handel,Tim (NAU) vs. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) no result
3. Schumann,Felix/Fisher,Thomas (NAU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 6-3

Match Notes:
Northern Arizona 4-4, 1-0 BSC
Montana 5-3, 2-2 BSC
Doubles order of finish: 3, 1, 2 DNF
Singles order of finish: 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5
Official: Schwartz T-3:45 A-47