Griz bounce back to defeat Cats

Friday, March 2

Bozeman, Mont.

Noon

Montana

Montana State

3/2/2018 7:29:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Fresh off a bye week, the Montana men's tennis team got right back in the swing of things, defeating Montana State 4-3 in Bozeman, snapping the Cats' two-match Big Sky win streak.

The nonconference win puts the Griz at 2-1 early in the season and gives UM its seventh-straight win over the Cats, dating back to 2014. MSU meanwhile falls to 2-6 after taking a pair of upset wins over Idaho State and Weber State last week.

Montana may have won, but Montana State wouldn't make it easy for the Griz, going up 1-0 after the doubles round with wins on courts two and three.

Down but not out, the Grizzlies rebounded with three-straight singles wins, shifting the momentum in the Bobcat- Anderson Tennis Center in UM's favor.

Just like that, Montana turned a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead as Victor Casadevall, Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl posted straight-sets wins on courts one, three and two.

"We came out of the doubles on fire and wanted to make a statement," said Schmidl. "That changed everything."

In the doubles, Max Korkh and Ludvig Hallgren dropped a 6-4 decision on court two, closely followed by Casadevall and Ignacio Tejerina falling on court three 6-3 to seal the point for MSU.

The All-Big Sky duo of Schmidl and Canellopoulos then took an uncharacteristic conference loss on court one (6-4), their first of the season. In 2017, the pair went 7-1 in league play to earn all-conference honors.

"Hats off to MSU. They're tough at home and were on a win streak, and it showed. They came out and made it rough on us," said Interim Head Coach Jason Brown.

Montana's comeback started in the singles round when Casadevall, who posted some of Montana's best-ever results in the fall tournament season, breezed past MSU's Alex Flink in the first set and ground out the second set to win 6-1, 7-5.

Canellopoulos also ground out a 7-5 win in his first set against MSU's Kasper Parlklo, before overpowering him 6-3 in the second set to put the Griz up 2-1 overall. Schmidl then put the Griz in the driver's seat with a clean 6-2, 6-4 win over Rok Sitar to put UM up 3-1 with three courts still in play.

The Bobcats then got one point back when Joaquin Espinoza pushed passed Korkh in three sets (6-2, 2-6, 6-3) to make it a 3-2 match in favor of the Griz.

Montana clinched the victory when Hallgren got going on court six. The sophomore Swede put UM on top for good with a clean 6-3, 6-2 win over Mateus Ceolin to give the Griz the nonconference W.

"It's hard to overcome a home court advantage, but we did it. I'm super happy with the way we competed, especially our seniors. Any win over the Cats is a good one," Brown added.

The Griz have been in this situation before with the Cats. In 2017's Brawl of the Wild match in Bozeman, the Griz had to do the same thing - rally from a 1-0 deficit. They did just that, and with the win, earned a trip to the Big Sky Tournament where they advanced to the championship match.

Even though today's match didn't count toward the league standings or the Brawl of the Wild series, a win over Montana State is a win over Montana State, and Schmidl thinks this could help springboard the team to higher things in the season ahead.

"It feels good. We expected to win, but this match built our confidence for the Big Sky season, and I hope we can keep it going."

SCHEDULE CHANGE:
Due to dangerous travel conditions, Montana's scheduled match with Idaho on Sunday has been canceled. A makeup date will be announced at a later time.

Montana 4, Montana State 3
Mar 02, 2018 at Bozeman, MT (Bobcat-Anderson Tennis Center)

Singles competition
1. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. FLINK, Alexander (MSU) 6-1, 7-5
2. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. SITAR, Rok (MSU) 6-2, 6-4
3. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. PARLKLO, Kasper (MSU) 7-5, 6-3
4. TORRICO, Adrian (MSU) def. KORKH, Max (UM) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
5. ESPINOZA, Joaquin (MSU) def. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 6-4, 3-6, 11-9
6. HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) def. CEOLIN, Mateus (MSU) 6-3, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. FLINK, Alexander/SITAR, Rok (MSU) def. SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) 6-4
2. PARLKLO, Kasper/TORRICO, Adrian (MSU) def. KORKH, Max/HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) 6-4
3. CASADEVALL, Victor/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. CEOLIN, Mateus/ESPINOZA, Joaquin (MSU) 6-3

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