The Sacramento State men’s tennis team defeated the University of Montana Saturday 4-0 in the semifinals of the Big Sky Championships.

With the win the Hornets Advance to Sunday’s final with Northern Arizona University.

The Hornets day started with doubles play as the teams of Kiryl Harbatsiuk and Marko Starcevic and Jason Smith and Tim Lantin each defeated their opponents 8-2, giving Sac State the early 2-0 lead in the semifinal.

Singles was a bit of the same for Hornets, as they needed just two more wins to move into Sunday’s championship.

Three different Sac State men contributed to the win. Harbatsiuk defeated his opponent Carl Kuschke in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. Smith defeated Josh Smith 6-1, 6-1 and Starcevic defeated Michael Facey 6-2, 6-1.

Only 4 of the 5 scores counts as by rule the match will end when a team reaches four wins.

Sac State will face Northern Arizona in Sunday’s championship as the Lumberjacks defeated Weber State University 4-1.

Starcevic said he was ready for his match in doubles in the men’s afternoon installment of the championships.

“I felt very prepared. We are all trying to be serious about this because it is the most important event of the year,” Starcevic said.

Holden Ching said he the team did a good job as a group in their matches.

“I think the team played pretty well. Especially since we came in not playing very well, we lost a couple of late matches in the schedule,” Ching said. “We all practiced hard. So we just focused and played well today.”

Head coach Slava Konikov said he wasn’t sure how his team would do since they had lost four matches to ranked opponents.

“I didn’t have great confidence coming into this match-up because we had lost last four matches to ranked opponents,” Konikov said. “The coaches talked to the team before the match and said we need to be tough. We need to play 100 percent. When started with the doubles match, I gained more confidence as the matches went on.”

Sac State will face Northern Arizona on Sunday for the Big Sky Championship at 2 P.M.

Matt Harrington can be reached at [email protected]