With a 7-0 sweep of Northern Colorado at the UM Lindsay Tennis Center Saturday, the University of Montana men’s tennis team clinched the No. 4 seed for next week’s Big Sky Championship Tournament.

The Grizzlies will go on to play Big Sky No.1 seed Sacramento State in semifinal match to be held April 24 at 3:00 P.M. MT in Gold River Calif.  Weber State and Northern Arizona, the two and three seeds, will play at the same time with the winner facing the victorious team from the UM/Sacramento State matchup.

In Saturday’s match, the Grizzlies outscored their Bear opponents 96-22 in games won, with all singles matches ending in straight sets.

With their win at No. 2 doubles, Carl Kuschke and Josh Smith extended their winning streak to three, the longest by a Grizzly duo in 2010. The two now share a 4-2 Big Sky record.

Kuschke also bolstered his own record, improving to 9-5 overall. Freshman Mike Facey also improved to 9-5, while Smith trails his teammates by one match at 8-6.

As a team the Grizzlies have gone 43-41 in singles wins with a Big Sky mark of 26-16.

Junior David Cysneiros improved to 5-1 in Big Sky matches. Kuschke is 5-2 in the Big Sky as well.

Cysneiros, Kuschke and Facey all joined teammate Raydner Ramos with singles streaks of three consecutive wins.

Getting important face-time in front of his home-town crowd Saturday was Missoula native Ben Demarois. The sophomore and Sentinel High graduate combined with freshman Mike Facey at No. 3 doubles, defeating Ryan Lane and Andre Lepine 8-3 in what was to be the closest match of the day.  

The Grizzlies will face in-state rivals Montana State Sunday in the final UM home match of the season. The Montana team will seek to even the score after a 3-4 loss to the Bobcats March 7.

Montana State had  a big start to the weekend as well, topping Northern Colorado 7-0 Friday and Eastern Washington 4-3 Saturday. The win places the Bobcats squarely behind the Grizzlies in the Big Sky, though two matches back.


Tennis Match Results
Northern Colorado vs Montana
Apr 17, 2010 at Missoula, Mont.

Montana 7, Northern Colorado 0

Singles competition:
1. Carl Kuschke (UM) def. VAN LIER, Calix (NC) 6-1, 6-0
2. Mikolaj Borkowski (UM) def. LANE, Ryan (NC) 6-2, 6-3
3. Josh Smith (UM) def. EDWARDS, Robbie (NC) 6-1, 6-3
4. Michael Facey (UM) def. BUCHANAN, Connor (NC) 6-2, 6-1
5. David Cysneiros (UM) def. DAY, Travis (NC) 6-1, 6-0
6. Timo Gehrke (UM) def. LEPINE, Andre (NC) 6-2, 6-1

Doubles competition:
1. Mikolaj Borkowski/David Cysneiros (UM) def. VAN LIER, Calix/EDWARDS, Robbie (NC) 8-1
2. Carl Kuschke/Josh Smith (UM) def. DAY, Travis/BUCHANAN, Connor (NC) 8-1
3. Michael Facey/DeMarois, Ben (UM) def. LANE, Ryan/LEPINE, Andre (NC) 8-3

Match Notes:
Northern Colorado 2-14, 0-7 BSC
Montana 8-6, 5-2 BSC