Bobcats Shut Out Sacramento State, Set Up Big Sky Men's Tennis Title Clash with UM

Thursday, April 14

Bozeman, MT

2 pm

Montana State University

Sacramento State

Matej Panik

Photo by: Jack Murrey

Bobcats Shut Out Sacramento State, Set Up Big Sky Men's Tennis Title Clash with UM

4/14/2022 7:16:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

Thrilling doubles point clincher pushes Cats to 7-0 victory

By: Bill Lamberty

BOZEMAN, Montana – Montana State beat Sacramento State 7-0 in a Big Sky Conference contest with strong championship implications in Bozeman on Thursday, and the turning point came early.

With doubles play tied 1-1, everyone in the Bobcats-Anderson Tennis Center gathered around Court 2 to watch Daan Van Dijk and Nejc Sitar battle Sacramento State's Ori Maior and Hayden Rand. After the match stayed on serve until the tie-breaker, the Hornets jumped out to a 4-1 lead. But the Bobcats took seven of the next eight points to claim the match and the doubles point.

"It totally changed the momentum of the match," Morris said.

From that point on, the Bobcats appeared unstoppable. Matej Panik cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2, followed closely by two-set wins by Brad Buckland at No. 4 and Jamieson Nathan at No. 3 to clinch the important win. Van Dijk grinded out a 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 10-8 win at the top ladder spot, then Nejc Sitar and Joaquin Espinoza polished off their opponents to seal the team win.

After an emotional win in the doubles point, Morris said Panik's ability to dominate at No. 2 singles set the Cats on a course to success. "When you take the doubles point, and you see a guy steamrolling in the top four, it gives the guys a lot of confidence and they're going to feed off that," Morris said. "After the doubles point, for Matej to come out and jump on that guy early I think set the tone."

The doubles portion of the match wasn't decided until Sacramento State double-faulted at 6-5. In fact, the Hornets' 4-1 lead left Van Dijk knowing that his team's best tennis was needed. "We were 4-1 down in the tie-breaker and played a couple very good points," he said. "We played some good tennis, trusted ourselves, especially our volleys. And we may have gotten a little lucky (with the double-fault)."

Van Dijk and Sitar scored two quick points on serve to draw to within 4-3, then after a Sac State point broke the Hornets serve to trail 5-4. Then Van Dijk served two points for a 6-5 lead, and Sac State's double fault gave MSU the point.

"Those guys they played today are undefeated at two doubles this season, so it was a good win for Daan and Nejc," Morris said. "We've emphasized doing a little better job with our energy in doubles, and it was better today. I think it still needs to be better, but it was better today and it showed with us being able to get over the hump and get the doubles point."

Morris also said his team's depth is a positive factor. "We know we're going to get looks at every (lineup) spot, we know that one through six our guys compete really hard, and we know we have a lot of quality at the bottom of our lineup," he said.

The win raises MSU's record to 16-7 on the season, and the Bobcats stand 6-1 in Big Sky Conference play. Montana is 5-1 heading into its match at Idaho on Saturday. Regardless of the outcome, the Cats and Griz get together in Bozeman on April 23 at 4 pm to determine the Big Sky regular season champion.

Montana State 7, Sacramento State 0
4-14-22 at Bozeman, Montana (Bobcat-Anderson Tennis Center)

SINGLES
1. VAN DIJK, Daan (MSU) def. Voros, Mate (SAC) 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 10-8
2. PANIK, Matej (MSU) def. Wong, Patrick (SAC) 6-1, 6-2
3. NATHAN, Jamieson (MSU) def. Maior, Ori (SAC) 6-2, 7-5
4. BUCKLAND, Brad (MSU) def. Rand, Hayden (SAC) 6-4, 6-4
5. SITAR, Nejc (MSU) def. Aksenoks, Rudolfs (SAC) 6-4, 6-2
6. ESPINOZA, Joaquin (MSU) def. Gravel, Michael (SAC) 6-4, 6-2

DOUBLES
1. Keki, Mark/Voros, Mate (SAC) def. PANIK, Matej/NATHAN, Jamieson (MSU) 6-3
2. VAN DIJK, Daan/SITAR, Nejc (MSU) def. Maior, Ori/Rand, Hayden (SAC) 7-6 (7-5)
3. ZELVER, Marcos/BUCKLAND, Brad (MSU) def. Aksenoks, Rudolfs/Wong, Patrick (SAC) 6-4

Records: Sacramento State 13-9/4-4 Big Sky, Montana State 16-7/6-1 Big Sky
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (2,4,3,1,5,6)
Officials: Steve Peterson, Barb Sidney, Lisa Paull
T-3:32

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