Griz rally to defeat Ball State 4-3

Thursday, March 8

Las Vegas, Nev.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Ball State

3/8/2018 5:47:00 PM | Men's Tennis

By: Montana Sports Information

Finding himself trailing in the second set, and his Grizzly teammates also trailing Ball State 3-1 deep in the singles round, Alexander Canellopoulos broke the strings on his racquet.

He quickly borrowed a teammates' racquet but wasn't able to recover from the distraction, dropping the set to force a tiebreaker. With the match hanging in the balance, Canellopoulos switched racquets again, this time borrowing from fellow Griz Zach Fisher.

The switch turned out to be just the thing both he and the Griz needed, as the junior from Greece rolled through the third set, sparking an epic comeback that saw UM win three-straight three-set matches to defeat the Cardinals 4-3 Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas.

"I've never seen that before. Not having your racquet can really bother you, but he fought through it," said Interim Head Coach Jason Brown of Canellopoulos.

"This was exactly what we needed going into conference. We went over some things pre-match, and they came out and ticked every box. They battled. It was a great college tennis match, and I'm happy to get the win."

The victory puts Montana at 3-2 on the year and gives them a boost of confidence heading into the first Big Sky match of the season on Saturday against North Dakota in Missoula.

Against BSU, the Griz fell behind early in the doubles round, with Victor Casadevall and Ignacio Tejerina dropping a 6-2 decision on court two.

Montana's history-making pair of Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl - who entered the match ranked No. 77 in the nation - bounced back with a 7-5 win on court one.

Ball Sate then sealed the doubles point on court three with a 7-6 (7-4) tiebreaker win that put BSU up 1-0 heading into singles.

In singles, the Griz fell down 2-0 quickly when Ludvig Hallgren dropped a 6-4, 6-0 match on court six. Schmidl then got the Griz in the win column on court three, breezing to a 6-4, 6-1 win that made it 2-1 in favor of BSU.

Things then went from bad to worse for UM as Ball State picked up another win on court four where Conner Anderson defeated Max Korkh 6-2, 6-4 to put the Cardinals out to a 3-1 lead, needing just one more win to take the overall victory.

Then the comeback started.

"We were down by a lot, and we just fought back as hard as we could and supported each other across all courts, and I think that made the difference," said Schmidl. "It was like a home match for us."

After Canellopoulos pulled off his borrowed-racquet heroics, Montana closed the gap with another three-set win on court one. This time Victor Casadevall bounced back from a loss in the second set to win the third easily, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

That win tied the match at 3-3, with the outcome to be decided on court five with Nacho Tejerina. By that time the momentum had already shifted in UM's favor, and Tejerina used it to rebound from a first-set loss to win 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in another third-set tiebreaker.

"Nacho played some unbelievable tennis. I'm super happy for him," added Brown. "The guys Grized up in the second half of the day and played really well."

Montana will now take on North Dakota to open Big Sky play on Saturday, March 10, with the first serves going up at 10 a.m. at the Peak Racquet Club south of Missoula.

Tennis Match Results
Montana vs Ball State
Mar 08, 2018 at Las Vegas, NV
(Fertitta Tennis Complex)

Montana 4, Ball State 3

Singles competition
1. CASADEVALL, Victor (UM) def. Marko Guzina (BSU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
2. CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. Nemanja Guzina (BSU) 6-0, 6-7 (1-7), 6-1
3. SCHMIDL, Yannick (UM) def. Thibualt De Negri (BSU) 6-4, 6-1
4. Conner Anderson (BSU) def. KORKH, Max (UM) 6-2, 6-4
5. TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) def. Chris Adams (BSU) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
6. Bryce Bonin (BSU) def. HALLGREN, Ludvig (UM) 6-4, 6-0

Doubles competition
1. #77 SCHMIDL, Yannick/CANELLOPOULOS, Alex (UM) def. Collin Rigney/Nemanja Guzina (BSU) 7-5
2. Marko Guzina/Conner Anderson (BSU) def. CASADEVALL, Victor/TEJERINA, Ignacio (UM) 6-2
3. Chris Adams/Tom Carney (BSU) def. HALLGREN, Ludvig/KORKH, Max (UM) 7-6 (7-4)

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