Falcons halt Griz comeback attempt

Sunday, February 10

Colorado Springs, Colo.

11 AM

Montana

Air Force

2/10/2019 6:23:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score PDF BOX SCORE

By: Montana Sports Information

A late rally by the Montana men's tennis team fell just short in a 4-3 loss to the Mountain West's Air Force Falcons in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Sunday.

In a thrilling dual that saw five of the six singles matches go three sets, the Grizzlies bounced back from a doubles loss to claim three singles wins, with the outcome resting on the final court.

Freshman Pontus Hallgren nearly pulled off the come-from-behind heroics as the last man standing for the Griz on court six forcing seven games to deuce. But with the match on the line, he ran out of gas in the final set, falling 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

The loss moves the Griz to 3-3 on the season as they return home from the weekend trip to Colorado with a 1-2 record.

They did pick up a critical Big Sky win over Northern Colorado, however, and succeeded in getting valuable minutes for the team's six freshmen in competitive nonconference losses to Abilene Christian and Air Force.

"We went into this weekend with a bunch of green freshmen, but we're coming out with a seasoned, veteran team. Everyone has now played a match in a tough environment, and we battled a salty Air Force team to the bitter end," said UM head coach Jason Brown. "I couldn't be prouder of the effort. That was one of the best college matches I've ever seen."

Montana started the match with a chance to jump ahead in the doubles round. Max Korkh and Oisin Shaffrey got the Griz off on the right foot with a clinical 6-2 win on court three.

On court two, brothers Ludvig and Pontus Hallgren dropped just their second match of season 3-6, while Alex Canellopoulos and Ed Pudney battled to a 4-6 loss on court one to give the Falcons the all-important opening point.

In singles, Pudney bounced back and breezed to a 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) win over Tadgh Collins on court four to level the overall score 1-1.

Canellopoulos, Montana's lone senior, rebounded to take a win in the second set on court one before forcing a tiebreaker in the third set to fall 6-2, 3-6, 7-5, which put the Griz down 1-2.

Ludvig Hallgren then leveled the score again with another three-set nail-biter, holding on to win the first set in a tiebreaker before cruising to a 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-3 third-set win.

Air Force Cadet Paul Hendrix put the Falcons back on top in another three-set marathon over Korkh on court three. The junior Grizzly rallied from a first set loss to take the second 4-6 and pushed the third set to a tiebreaker before eventually falling 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).

With the Falcons needing just one more win out of two matches to clinch, Shaffrey once again came up big for the Grizzlies with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win in the third set. It was the fifth-straight singles win for the freshman, whose only loss this season came at the hands of Gonzaga.

With the scores level at three and all eyes on his match, Pontus Hallgren started strong on court six with a 4-6 win, but eventually fell to Cadet James Scotty 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to give the home team the win.

"We came out of this weekend a much better team," added Brown. "We got the important conference win, so overall I give the trip an A."

The Grizzlies now enter a bye week before heading to Salt Lake City on Feb. 23 and 24 to face Utah and Marquette. Montana returns home for key Big Sky matches against top-ranked Northern Arizona on March 9 and Weber State on March 10.