Griz run out of gas in championship

Saturday, April 28

Phoenix, Ariz.

2PM (MT)

Montana

Idaho

4/28/2018 5:53:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team's dream run in the Big Sky championship tournament came to an end on Saturday as the No. 1 seed Idaho Vandals beat the No. 3 Griz 4-0 in the title match.

In the blazing Arizona sun, Montana's tank ran dry after over eight hours of grueling battles to reach the championship match, while the Vandals breezed into the final with less than two hours of court time after receiving the first-round bye and running past Weber State 4-0.

It was déjà vu once again for the Griz, but not the good kind as Idaho punched its third ticket to the NCAA tourney in the last four years.

"Sometimes déjà vu is a bit of a nightmare. It was total a repeat of last year. They were fresh, and we were sunburnt and sore. The heat was a big factor," said interim head coach Jason Brown. "I couldn't be prouder of the guys though, they all fought until the end."

For the third time at this tournament, the Grizzlies built a lead in the doubles round only to see a win slip away.

Yannick Schmidl and Max Korkh, who posted the Big Sky's best winning percentage in doubles this season, picked up a win on court two over Idaho's Santibanez/Coutinho pair, dominating 6-3.

The Vandals' nationally ranked pair of Mark Kovacs and Carlos Neto balanced the score with a win on court one over Victor Casadevall and Ignacio Tejerina 6-4, leaving the result hanging with Alexander Canellopoulos and Ludvig Hallgren on court three.

The Griz pair, which entered the match at 6-1 on the season and had already picked up a win over the Idaho duo during the regular season, dropped a tight 6-4 decision to seal the crucial point for Idaho.

"We had a real chance at the doubles point, and I felt like a win there might have made a difference in the singles," said Brown. "But they had some breaks go their way, and it got away from us after that."

Montana's troubles continued into the singles round, with Montana dropping the first set on all six courts.

Hallgren was the first to fall for UM, dropping a 6-3, 6-2 match to Lucas Coutinho on court six that put the Vandals up 2-0 overall.

After two days of grinding out epic wins for the Griz, Tejerina finally met his match against the Vandals, falling 6-2, 6-0 to Guilherme Scarpelli on court four to put the Griz down 3-0.

Shortly after, Korkh was the final domino to fall for the Griz, with Idaho's Esteban Santibanez also picking up a straight-set victory, 6-2, 6-3 to clinch the match for Idaho, with the Griz trailing on courts one two and three.

The loss ends an otherwise historic season for the Griz, who finish the year with a 14-6 overall record, tied for the second-most wins in program history and also tied for the second-fewest losses.

In the team's first year without Kris Nord at the helm since 1986, Brown led the Grizzlies to a litany of first-ever accomplishments.

Consider the following:

At 7-0, Montana went undefeated at home for only the third time in program history and tied the 2011 mark for most wins in an undefeated season at home.

Casadevall became the first Grizzly ever to advance to the quarterfinal of the ITA Mountain Region tournament, placing him among the most accomplished players in the western United States.

Schmidl and Canellopoulos became the first male Grizzlies ever to earn a national ranking from the ITA, coming in at No. 77 in the March 7 rankings.

Schmidl and Casadevall combined to win the Big Sky Player of the Week award three times in April, a feat that has only occurred six times in program history.

At 10-1, Schmid and Korkh will finish the season as the Big Sky's top overall doubles team with a .909 winning percentage on court two.

The Griz defeated Idaho in the regular season for the first time since 2011.

Montana will now graduate four seniors from the 2017-18 team, with Schmidl, Casadevall, Tejerina and Zach Fisher each moving on to life after college tennis. But with Canellopoulos, Korkh, and Hallgren each returning with ample big match experience and a bumper crop of incoming freshmen expected to be announced in the near future, the Griz now look to the future.

"We're going to miss this year's seniors. That's a real special class going out who have been the heart of the lineup last two years," said Brown. "But I think Griz tennis is in good hands with our returners. I'm excited about those three. Each played some of the best tennis I've ever seen at Montana this year, so the future is bright."