MEN'S TENNIS OUTLASTS MONTANA 4-3, ADVANCES TO BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIP
4/26/2008
GOLD RIVER, Calif. — The Sacramento State men’s tennis team moved one step closer to winning its seventh Big Sky Conference title in the last 11 years with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Montana on Saturday at the Gold River Racquet Club. With the win, the Hornets improved 16-7 overall and will meet Eastern Washington in the Big Sky Championship on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Montana, who entered the tournament as the sixth seed and upset No. 3 Weber State on Friday, ended its season with an 8-10 record.
With the match tied 3-3, Sven-David Rueff clinched the victory for the Hornets with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win at No. 5 over David Cysneiros. The third set stayed on serve until Rueff was able to break Cysneiros and take a 4-3 lead. He then held serve and was able to break one more time to earn his 11th consecutive singles victory.
The Hornets took a commanding 3-0 lead before Montana mounted its comeback. Sacramento State won two doubles matches for a 1-0 lead and then claimed the top two singles matches. In doubles play, Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Anton Stryhas won at No. 1, 8-3, and Holden Ching and Ronan Conlon combined for an 8-5 win at No. 3.
Stryhas and Harbatsiuk then recorded the first two singles victories. Stryhas defeated Colin Dektar, 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 before Harbatsiuk closed out Mikolaj Borkowski, 6-3, 7-5 at No. 2. Styhas extended his winning streak to 19 straight matches and is now 21-1 in singles play on the year and a combined 38-4 in singles and doubles action.
The Grizzlies began their comeback behind Alexandre Gorj who downed Conlon, 6-4, 6-3 at No. 6. Raydner Ramos trimmed Sacramento State’s lead to 3-2 with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Ching at No. 4 before Felipe Raw defeated Artur Klimenka, 6-4, 6-4 at No. 3.
The victory pushed Sacramento State’s win streak to 10 straight matches overall and 18 against Big Sky foes.
GOLD RIVER, Calif. —
