Griz fall in season opener at Gonzaga, 5-2

Saturday, January 19

Spokane, Wash.

3 PM (MT)

Montana

Gonzaga

1/19/2019 6:35:00 PM | Men's Tennis

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By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team took a pair of three-set victories in the singles round, but it was too little, too late for the Griz as a strong Gonzaga team spoiled UM's season opener 5-2 in Spokane on Saturday.

After making a strong push for the doubles point, Freshman Ed Pudney picked up the first dual win of his college career and Max Korkh opened his junior season with a come-from-behind win late in the singles round to put the Griz on the board.

"Gonzaga is a great team, but I thought we played pretty good," said second-year head coach Jason Brown.

"We had our chances to make it close, but it was the first college match for some of these guys. I have all the faith in the world the W's will come if we keep playing like that."

In doubles, Korkh and Alex Canellopoulos played their first match together and struggled with unforced errors on court one, eventually falling to Gonzaga's Feit/O'Sullivan pair 6-1. On courts two and three, however, Montana built early leads to make a run for the overall doubles point.

Oisin Shaffrey and Pudney built a 3-2 lead on court three and were tied 4-4 before eventually falling 6-4 to Gonzaga's upperclassmen Egger/Everly pair to clinch the point for the Zags.

Meanwhile, on court two, brothers Ludvig and Pontus Hallgren built a 3-2 lead and were tied with GU's Rettke/Perkins pair 5-5 when play was suspended.

"We really struggled on the deuce points in doubles. They make all the difference," said Brown.

Pudney got off to a strong start in the first set on singles court four with a 6-4 win over GU's Hunter Egger and rebounded from a 7-5 loss in a second set tiebreaker to come away with a victory in the super breaker for Montana's first win of the day.

Korkh picked up the Grizzlies' second victory of the day on court three, bouncing back from a 6-1 loss in the first set to take the second in a tiebreaker, 7-6. The momentum from that win carried him through to a 10-5 win in the super breaker to defeat GU junior Vincent Retke 1-6, 7-6, 1-0.

"I was proud of Max's effort after a tough doubles loss and a loss in the first set," said Brown. "We talked about finding what works for him and he worked hard to get back into it, and get a win."

Canellopoulos, UM's lone senior, ran into some hard luck on singles court one, going through a 0-8 stretch of deuce points in a 0-6, 2-6 loss at the top of the order.

At the bottom of the order, Grizzly freshmen Shaffrey and Pontus Hallgren both forced break points in the first set of their singles matches, but ran out of steam in the second set, sealing the match in favor of the Zags.

With an encouraging performance against a talented team under their belts, Montana now returns to Missoula for a two-week training block before their home opener on Feb. 2 against Whitman, followed by a nonconference home match against Montana State on Feb. 3.