Griz knock off No. 1 Vandals 5-2

Thursday, April 12

Missoula, Mont.

2 PM

Montana

Idaho

4/12/2018 9:13:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team learned two things on Thursday: there's no place like home, and victory is the sweetest revenge.

After nearly a month on the road, the Grizzlies returned to Missoula and picked up their biggest win of the year, dismantling the previously undefeated in league play, and No. 1 ranked Idaho Vandals 5-2.

The win boosts Montana's record to 5-2 in conference play (8-5 overall) with a legitimate chance of winning-out and advancing to the Big Sky tourney with only the pair of losses, playing each of their remaining four regular season matches at home.

Before Thursday, Montana had not beaten the Vandals since 2011, despite numerous close calls.

But the Griz entered the match motivated by revenge after Idaho defeated the Griz in last year's Big Sky championship, which brought UM abruptly back to earth after the euphoric high of upsetting Northern Arizona in the semifinal.

(4/12/2018) MTEN:: vs. Idaho 4.12.18

"It's so, so, nice to be home. It's just so good to be in Missoula, have fans rooting for us, to be at the Peak where we practice and have the ball land where we want it to," said interim head coach Jason Brown. "The homecourt advantage showed up today. The guys looked really good."

With the defending league champs returning all three of their All-Big Sky players to this year squad, and boasting the league's only unblemished record at 6-0, Brown and the Grizzlies knew a win would be hard to come by.

"These guys aren't going to give us anything," said Brown. "We had to go take it. We had to stay aggressive, and we had to execute under pressure, and we did an amazing job of it today."

Montana got the start it was looking for in the doubles round, jumping on Idaho early and not letting the foot off the gas, with Alexander Canellopoulos and Ludvig Hallgren crushing Idaho's Guilherme/Fonseca pair 6-3 on court three.

Idaho's nationally ranked doubles pair of Mark Kovacs and Carlos Neto then knotted the round with a 6-4 victory on court one over Ignacio Tejerina and Victor Casadevall.

But Yannick Schmidl and Max Korkh picked up their fifth-straight win as a partnership on court two, clinching the point for UM with a 7-5 nail-biter to take a 1-0 overall lead.

Idaho then tied the match at one early in the singles round when Guilherme defeated Tejerina in straight sets (6-4, 6-2) on court three, the first time "Nacho" had played that far up the lineup this season.

Schmidl put the Griz right back in front, however, rebounding from two-straight uncharacteristic losses to pick up the first win of his career over Kovacs, Idaho's three-time All-Big Sky performer.

The senior got a hot start as well, taking a 6-4 win in the opening set before finishing Kovacs off in a second-set tiebreaker 7-6 (7-3) to put UM up 2-1 and give the Griz a boost of momentum.

Hear from Alex Canellopoulos after his come from behind win over Felipe Fonseca, leading to a big win over the defending champion Vandals!#GoGriz pic.twitter.com/w1sZa0UUBJ
— Montana Griz Tennis (@MontanaGrizTEN) April 12, 2018

Meanwhile, on court four, Canellopoulos picked up the biggest conference win of his career with a come-from-behind victory over three-time first team All-Big Sky performer Felipe Fonseca.

The junior from Greece emerged from his recent slump after coming from behind in both sets to take a 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) win over the Vandal senior, just the sixth loss of Fonseca's career in Big Sky play.

"I believed in myself the whole time, I stayed aggressive, played at my own pace, and never doubted myself, and I think that gave me the victory today," said Canellopoulos.

The junior from Greece entered the match having lost five of his last six singles matches. But a new game plan he devised with Brown helped put him in the mental place he needed to be to take the upset that put UM out to a 3-1 lead.

"We put together a checklist of three things that have nothing to do with winning or losing," said Brown. "He checked all three boxes today and got a win, so I couldn't be happier for him."

With a room-full of momentum behind them, Casadevall clinched the match for the Griz with a decisive three-set win over Neto on court two (6-4, 2-6, 6-3) to give UM the 4-1 lead, and the overall team win.

Friday afternoon the Griz will host the Northern Colorado Bears, who upset the Griz early last season in Greeley. On Sunday UM will face the team that his currently chasing them in the Big Sky standings, with Portland State coming to town with a 5-4 record, sitting fourth on the league table.

UM will face Northern Colorado at 2 p.m. on Friday, while the Portland State match gets underway at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Both matches will be played at the Peak Racquet Club south of Missoula, just off Blue Mountain Road. Admission is free of charge.