Griz close out regular season with loss to Weber

Sunday, April 23

Missoula, Mont.

10:00 AM

Montana

Weber State

4/23/2017 3:59:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Montana Sports Information

PDF RESULTS | TOURNAMENT BRACKET

The Montana men's tennis team missed out on an opportunity to enter the Big Sky Championship Tournament with a five-match win streak, falling to Weber State 4-3 in its final outing of the regular season on Sunday at the PEAK Racquet Club in Missoula.

The Griz (12-8, 7-4 BSC), will head to the championship tournament as the No. 4 seed after clinching a berth with a win over Montana State on Friday. Weber State (8-11, 5-5 BSC) will miss the Big Sky tourney as the No. 8 ranked team in the league.

Against the Wildcats, the Grizzlies built leads on nearly every court in both singles and doubles play, but lost momentum at key positions, allowing Weber to come from behind and seal the 4-3 win.

"It puts a sour taste in my mouth because we've been playing so well, and to have it in our hands and let it go is hard," said Montana head coach Kris Nord.

"I think we lost focus in a lot of spots. I don't think we came out ready to play, and that cost us. You have to go learn to finish matches, and we didn't do that."

The Griz started the match riding the energy of senior day festivities, taking early leads on all three doubles courts only to see the Wildcats bounce back and make each match a close contest.

Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl picked up their eighth doubles win of the season on court two, jumping out to a 5-3 lead before taking the win 6-4 over WSU's Hintze/Van Wyk pair.

(4/23/2017) MTEN: vs. WSU 4.23.17

On court one, Peter Mimnagh-Fleming and Max Korkh also jumped out to an early 5-3 lead, only to see it whittled away by the Wildcats' Cooper/Yin pair, who won 7-5.

Weber then sealed the doubles point win on court three when the Chen/Walkusz pair came back from 3-5 down to take a 7-5 win over UM's pairing of Jacob Schoenherr and Ignacio Tejerina.

In singles, Schmidl quickly tied the match 1-1 with a straight-sets win for the Griz on court two over Stefan Cooper, 6-3, 6-0.

Canellopoulos then put UM ahead for the first time in the match on court three, coming from behind to take the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker, then sealing the win in the second set 6-3.

"That's a really good win for him, he really fought hard," added Nord.

With Canellopoulos' win, the Griz took a 2-1 lead, but the Wildcats quickly evened the score on court one when Jack Yin came back to defeat Mimnagh-Fleming 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 – tying the overall match 2-2.

Weber State took the lead for the final time on court four, with Eddie Chen coming back from a first set loss to defeat Korkh 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.

Montana's Ignacio Tejerina had a chance to even the overall match 3-3 on court five, bouncing back from a first-set loss to win the second set 6-4. Tejerina would eventually fall 6-2 in the third set, however, snapping a 12-match singles win streak for the Spaniard.

The No. 4 seed Griz will take the court on the morning of April 27 in Phoenix, Airz., at the Big Sky Championship Tournament, held at the Phoenix Tennis Center against the No. 5 seed Idaho State Bengals. Montana beat Idaho State 6-1 earlier this month in Missoula.

Tennis Match Results
Weber State vs Montana
Apr 23, 2017 at Missoula, Mont.
(PEAK Racquet Club)

Weber State 4, Montana 3

Singles competition
1. YIN, Shao-Po (Jack) (WSU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
2. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. COOPER, Stefan (WSU) 6-3, 6-0
3. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. VAN WYK, Kris (WSU) 7-6, 6-3
4. CHEN, Hou-En (Eddie) (WSU) def. KORKH, Max (UM) 3-6, 7-6, 6-3
5. VAN SCHOOR, Michiel (WSU) def. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
6. SCHOENHERR, Jacob (UM) def. HINTZE, Scott (WSU) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. COOPER, Stefan/YIN, Shao-Po (Jack) (WSU) def. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P./KORKH, Max (UM) 7-5
2. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex/SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. HINTZE, Scott/VAN WYK, Kris (WSU) 6-4
3. CHEN, Hou-En (Eddie)/WALKUSZ, Cezary (WSU) def. SCHOENHERR, Jacob/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 7-5

Match Notes:
Weber State 8-11, 5-5 BSC
Montana 12-8, 7-4 BSC
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (2,3,1,4,5,6)
Official: Schwartz T-4:10 A-35