The Sacramento State men’s tennis team traveled to Montana State University for a double header on Saturday against the host Bobcats in the morning and Utah State University in the afternoon.

The Sacramento State men’s tennis team defeated Montana State 5-2 in the morning sessionto up its record overall to 4-4 on the season and 3-1 in Big Sky Conference matches. With the loss the Bobcats fall to 3-10 overall and 0-4 in league play.

Sac State won all three doubles contests and picked up the first point of the match. Hornets Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Anton Stryhas defeated Fletcher Keyes and Alberto Fuentes 8-6 for the first win of the day. Joe DeGuzman and Marko Starcevic of Sac State won 8-6, which clinched the point. The last match was won 9-8 (12-10) by Hornets, Jason Smith and Holden Ching over Corey Smith and Pawel Turanski.

In singles play, Harbatsiuk increased the team’s lead to 2-0 after he defeated Keyes, 6-3 6-3. With the win he is now 7-1 on the season. Next, Stryhas won 6-4 6-2 over Turzanski. The final point was won with Jason Smith winning against Corey Smith in three sets, 4-6 6-4 6-0.

After a short break in play, Sac State fell to Utah State 4-3 in the afternoon session to drop to 4-5 on the season.

The teams split the singles matches with Smith and Harbatsuik both winning in straight sets for Sac State. Smith beat Bryan Merchant 6-3, 6-4 and Harbatsuik defeated Sven Poslusny, 6-3, 6-3.

However ,with a chance to clinch the victory the Hornets came up short in match No. 1 when Stryhaus was knocked off by Jakob Asplund.

Due to the split the doubles matches would be played to determine the winner.

Utah state defeated Sac State in doubles play, with two wins in three matches. Ching and Smith doubled for Sac State’s only win, 8-2.

The Hornets return to action when the travel to Northern Colorado next on March 5 at 11 a.m. where they will take on the host Grizzlies as well as the University of Denver.

Sergio Saldana can be reached at [email protected]