The University of Montana men’s tennis team ended its 2010 spring season with a loss to one-seed Sacramento State Saturday in Gold River Calif. The Grizzlies dropped the doubles point and three two-set matches in the Big Sky tournament semifinal, while three close matches went unfinished.
Following play Saturday, 28th-year UM coach Kris Nord said, “We started slowly in doubles, giving up that point as we did before when we played Sac. We later had three strong matches going in singles, but we needed to hold on to at least one other match to stay alive. Mike Facey’s opponent played much better than he had when we saw them last. With that point, they found the clincher and we lost our window to improve the score.
“Iv’e got to hand it to Sacramento State. They were a tough team before and to their credit, they played even better against us this time ‘round.
“We are happy with where three singles matches were headed, though you can’t say with unfinished matches.
“My hat’s off to our opponent. They played well and we hope that they go far.”
Sacramento State will go on to play Northern Arizona, who went 4-1 over Weber Saturday, in Sunday’s championship final. The Grizzlies topped the Lumberjacks in their March 12 meeting.
The unfinished UM matches Saturday included those of senior Raydner Ramos, who went 6-7 with a 3-7 tiebreaker against Holden Ching at No. 3; junior David Cysneiros, who went 3-6 in his first set before going up 2-1 in the second over Hornet Tim Lantin; and senior Mikolaj Borkowski, who also showed a 2-1 start to his second set before dropping his first 4-6 to Anton Stryhas.
The Grizzlies drop to 9-7 overall with the semifinal loss.
Big Sky Player of the Week Mike Facey maintained the best individual Grizzly record at 10-6. The freshman leads both Josh Smith and Carl Kuschke, who moved to 9-7 with their losses Saturday.
Tennis Match Results
Montana vs Sacramento State
Apr 24, 2010 at Gold River, Calif.
Sacramento State 4, Montana 0
Singles competition:
1. #104 HARBATSIUK, Kiryl (SAC) def. Carl Kuschke (UM) 6-2, 6-2
2. STRYHAS, Anton (SAC) vs. Mikolaj Borkowski (UM) 6-4, 1-2, unfinished
3. SMITH, Jason (SAC) def. Josh Smith (UM) 6-1, 6-1
4. CHING, Holden (SAC) vs. Raydner Ramos (UM) 7-6 (7-3), unfinished
5. STARCEVIC, Marko (SAC) def. Michael Facey (UM) 6-2, 6-1
6. LANTIN, Tim (SAC) vs. David Cysneiros (UM) 6-3, 1-2, unfinished
Doubles competition:
1. HARBATSIUK, Kiryl/STARCEVIC, Marko (SAC) def. Mikolaj Borkowski/David Cysneiros (UM) 8-2
2. CHING, Holden/STRYHAS, Anton (SAC) vs. Carl Kuschke/Josh Smith (UM) 6-5, unfinished
3. SMITH, Jason/LANTIN, Tim (SAC) def. Timo Gehrke/Michael Facey (UM) 8-2
Match Notes:
Montana 9-7
Sacramento State 16-11
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (3,1,5)
Big Sky Conference Tournament Semifinals