FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (April, 13, 2023) — The Lumberjacks are heading into their final weekend of Big Sky regular season play as NAU is set to host Montana on Friday at 10 a.m. MST and Weber State on Saturday at 10 a.m. MST. Before Saturday's match, the Jacks will honor seniors Daniel Dillon, Facundo Tumosa, and Alex Groves for their final home match.
With a win tomorrow against the Griz, and a Saturday win against the Wildcats, the Lumberjacks would remain undefeated in conference play and outright claim the Big Sky regular season title. The last time NAU Men's Tennis went undefeated in conference play was in 2019 (10-0), where the Jacks claimed both the regular season and the tournament championship titles.
NAU is coming off its sixth week of consecutive rankings by the ITA as the team came in at No. 66 this past week after knocking Big Sky opponents Sacramento State and Idaho State in back-to-back matches.
The Jacks have seen success on both sides of matches as the team has put up an impressive 43-8 in doubles play this season alongside a 93-22 singles record as a team. Seven Lumberjacks have only suffered two or less losses on the singles courts, as Dominik Buzonics and Alex Groves lead the team in overall singles, each holding a 13-2 record. Piotr Galus leads the team in overall singles wins with a 16-3 record.
As the Lumberjacks keep things tight on the doubles courts, Groves and Galus lead the team as a duo, going 14-3 in doubles matches. Facundo Tumosa leads the team in overall doubles with a 16-2 record himself.
The Montana Griz have gone 10-9 this season, while putting up a 2-4 record in conference matches. The Griz are coming off their second Big Sky victory after weeping the Portland State Vikings last week in a 7-0 match.
Montana freshman George Russell put in a Player of the Week performance for the Griz in their two home duals last week. He went undefeated at 4-0 in both singles and doubles, helping UM to a 7-0 sweep of Portland State on Saturday.
Against Idaho, he helped Montana claim the doubles point with his partner Moritz Stoeger on court two with UM's first win of the day against the Vandals', beating the Gay/Kurata pair 6-2. He then went on to pick up the Grizzlies' only singles win of the day, beating Mario Duron 7-6 (1), 6-3 in straight sets on court five.
The Weber State Wildcats hold an overall record of 11-7 while going an undefeated 4-0 in conference play this season. The Wildcats will enter Saturday's match on a three game win streak as they knocked down Sacramento State, Idaho State, and Santa Clara.
The Wildcats are led by Tristan Sarap who has a 11-3 overall singles record, while primarily playing at the No. 2. Tristan Sarap won his first career Big Sky Men's Tennis Player of the Week honor, after the sophomore won an impressive pair of matches for Weber State against Santa Clara last Friday. Alongside partner Elyes Marouani, Sarap won a 7-6(3) tiebreaker to clinch the doubles point for the Wildcats on court one. In singles action, Sarap defeated his foe in straight-sets to put Weber State up 2-0 before the Wildcats took the 4-1 victory over their West Coast Conference opponent.
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