Saturday, April 8
Missoula, Mont.
1:00 PM
Montana
6
vs
1
Idaho State
Griz answer the call, pull out 6-1 win over Idaho State
4/8/2017 8:36:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Coming into this weekend's homestand, the Montana men's tennis team was on the outside of Big Sky Tournament qualification looking in.
But after gritting out a 6-1 win over Idaho State in the face of adversity on Saturday, the Griz now sit in a solid position to take a top-six finish and book their ticket to the conference championship in Phoenix.
On the indoor courts at the PEAK Racquet Club in Missoula, UM jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a win in the doubles competition. But the Bengals flipped the script on the Griz in the early stages of the singles competition, and Montana found itself struggling to keep pace, down a set on two different courts.
Montana's troubles then compounded on court one when Grizzly ace Victor Casadevall went down with an ankle injury that could have easily spelled doom for the home team. Instead of wallowing in their misfortune, however, the Grizzlies responded, putting together a string of come-from-behind wins to take the weekend sweep after defeating Sacramento State on Friday.
"The final score doesn't reflect how close this match was at all," said Montana head coach Kris Nord. "We were on the edge of a pretty sound defeat, to be honest. We were hurting at three singles, we were hurting at four singles, and it didn't look good. I was really proud of Alex (Canellopoulos) for getting his act back together, and Yannick (Schmidl) had great fight."
Peter Mimnagh-Fleming eased out to a 6-3 win in the first set on court three, but lost momentum in the second set after Casadevall's injury, falling 4-6. UM's lone senior then responded with a 6-4 win in the third to put the Griz up 2-1.
On court four, Canellopoulos was facing a quick exit from the day's play when Casadevall went down injured, dropping his first set 3-6. But when it became do-or-die time, the sophomore from Greece fought back, taking the second and third sets 6-3, 6-1.
"I think at that point we realized we need every point from then on," said Schmidl, who dropped his first set 5-7 before storming back to win the second and third sets 6-1, 6-2 to clinch Montana's team victory on court two.
"This was a really tough match, and we expected that, but when you're in that situation, you have to respond. I think we responded really well and that's what I'm proud of today. I loved the response."
After getting two matches at home following nearly a month on the road, the Griz will take to I-90 over the next two weeks for another pair of matches at Eastern Washington on April 15, followed by the Brawl of the Wild match in Bozeman on April 21 against the Bobcats.
"This weekend's wins put us in a great position," Schmidl added. "We have some matches coming up I think we can win, so now it's easier to go to next week's matches with confidence. It won't be easy, but we're all confident."
2016-17 Montana Men's Tennis
Idaho State vs Montana (Apr 08, 2017)
Montana 6, Idaho State 1
Apr 08, 2017 at Missoula, Mont. (The PEAK Racquet Club)
Singles competition
1. EDIN,Sebastian (ISU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) 5-3, retired
2. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. WACQUEZ,Quentin (ISU) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
3. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P. (UM) def. GOODWIN,Josh (ISU) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
4. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. FILIPOVICH,Francis (ISU) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
5. KORKH, Max (UM) def. SCHEEPBOUWER,Bjorn (ISU) 6-0, 4-6, 7-6
6. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. SULLIVAN,Keegan (ISU) 6-1, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. MIMNAGH-FLEMING, P./KORKH, Max (UM) def. GOODWIN,Josh/EDIN,Sebastian (ISU) 6-2
2. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. SCHEEPBOUWER,Bjorn/SULLIVAN,Keegan (ISU) 6-1
3. CASADEVALL, Victor/HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) def. WACQUEZ,Quentin/FILIPOVICH,Francis (ISU) 5-4
Match Notes
Idaho State 10-8 (5-4 BSC)
Montana 10-7 (5-3 BSC)
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (1,3,4,2,5,6)
Official: Schwartz
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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