MISSOULA — The Montana men’s tennis team got an ideal start to the 2018 season, sweeping the visiting Lewis-Clark State Warriors 7-0 with straight-sets wins on each court. The win puts the Grizzlies at 1-0 to start the year as they set off on a mission to return to the Big Sky Conference championship match for the second consecutive season.
Montana asserted its strength against the NAIA Warriors, not allowing the visitors to take more than three games in any set. The Griz swept the doubles 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 to go up 1-0 early in the match, and didn’t look back from there, taking six straight-sets wins in the singles round.
Alexander Canellopoulos and Yannick Schmidl, Montana’s all-conference doubles pair, picked up where they left off after running through Big Sky competition 7-1 last season, taking a 6-2 win on Court 1. Canellopoulos was also dominant on singles Court 3, defeating LCSC’s Tony Chin (6-0, 6-1) to take the first match of the day.
Sophomore Ludvig Hallgren was also dominant for the Griz, blanking LCSC’s Roberto Salazar (6-0, 6-0) on Court 6.
Due to hazardous road conditions, Saturday’s “Brawl of the Courts” match between Montana and Montana State has been postponed until a later date. The Griz will now turn their attention to the Pac-12’s Utah Utes Feb. 17 in Salt Lake City.
