Men's tennis loses Big Sky opener
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Results | NC Season Stats
GREELEY, Colo. – In the Big Sky Conference opener, the Northern Colorado men's tennis team couldn't contain Montana State, falling 6-1 on Sunday afternoon at Work Out West.
The Bears (1-1, 0-1 Big Sky) got solid play from both freshman Jeff Carlson and sophomore Brandon Lupo, but only Carlson ended up on the winning end.
Today was a tough match," said Head Coach Tim Bearman. "Montana State played well. They came out and set the tone for the entire match in doubles. For the most part, the effort was there, we just came up short in some of the singles matches."
Montana State won the doubles point, winning all three matches, but there was a real battle at number three as freshmen Michael Moya and Carlson forced a tiebreaker, but eventually lost 8-7 (7-3).
"At three doubles, Moya and Carlson put themselves in a position to win," said Bearman. "They executed well but came up short in the breaker. All-in-all it was a good performance by those two in doubles play this weekend."
Carlson played at number five singles and defeated Lander Jewett in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1 to move to 2-0 on the young season.
"Jeff Carlson stepped up today," said Bearman. "He showed great discipline and patience in singles and continues to serve well. It is great to have the freshman contribute right off the bat and win his first conference singles match."
At number one singles, Lupo forced a tiebreak in the first set and went extra points in the tiebreak, but Pavel Turzanski was able to hold on 7-6 (8-6). He then got a break to win the second set 6-3 for the win.
"Brandon Lupo played a solid match," said Bearman. He continues to perform at a high level essential to winning at the number one singles spot. Turzanski's got a lot of experience and it showed today, the guy played well but Brandon had his chances in both sets, he just came up a little short."
The Bears travel to Air Force next weekend to play Seattle on Friday at 9:00 am and Air Force on Saturday at noon.
