MORAGA, Calif. - The Saint Mary's men's tennis team dropped a 5-2 match to Montana on Tuesday afternoon at the Timothy Korth Tennis Complex. The Grizzlies won the doubles point and then won four-of-six singles matches to claim the win.
The Gaels fall to 4-13 with the loss, while Montana improves to 10-4 this season.
In doubles play, the Grizzlies earned a quick win on court two where Ethan Vaughn and Michael Facey earned an 8-4 win over Saad Benkirane and Maxime Olivan. Montana then claimed the doubles point on court one, where Mikolaj Caruk and Andrew Warren won a tight 8-5 match over Steven Dawson-Roberts and Joakim Norstrom.
Sherif Hamdy and Seif El Sherbini won their match on court three after the point was already decided, holding off a furious comeback by Ben Demoarious and Carl Kuschke to earn an 8-5 win.
The Grizzlies proved to be too much in singles play, earning wins on four-of-six courts. Highlighting singles action for Saint Mary's was Olivan and Benkirane. Olivan claimed his match on court one over Kuschke, 6-2, 6-2, to improve to 9-8 this season and 8-2 in his last 10 matches.
Benkirane earned the Gaels' other point of the day at the No. 3 spot, defeating Warren 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Saint Mary's returns to action on Thursday, April 5 with a 1:30 p.m. match against No. 62 Oregon.
Courtesy: Tod Fierner
