The Sacramento State men’s tennis team (3-7, 3-0 in the Big Sky Conference) earned its first home win of the season Saturday as they defeated Montana State (1-7, 1-2 in Big Sky) 6-1.

Sac State jumped ahead early by winning the doubles point. Freshmen Dom Miller and Donald Hall led this effort, as they won their No. 2 doubles set 6-1. The No. 3 doubles set was won by freshman Uli Vollath and sophomore Christopher Clayton, 6-2.

Senior Joaquin Marquez won a thriller at No. 3 singles against Alexander Flink. After dropping the first set 0-6, Marquez battled back to win the second set 6-3, and then the tie-breaker 10-6. Also winning in three sets was Kasparas Zemaitelis at the No. 2 spot, with a score of 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.

Yesterday’s win was the third win in a row for Sac State, and head coach Slava Konikov was happy with the results.

“We are excited about this match and everyone did well and everyone listened well,” Konikov said. “We did good.”

Sac State features a young team with just two seniors out of 11 players but is looking to contend very well in the Big Sky.

“We need to continue the winning,” Konikov said. “We need more wins. We have four freshmen and they need to get more confidence.”

Konikov won’t get complacent with the wins, though. Some of the areas he thinks can be improved are second serves and attacking play with serve-volley combos.

“We know our goal and we need to practice more,” Konikov said. “I want to change our plan and concentrate on doubles more, especially for volleys, and serve and volley. So many teams play volleys very well on attacking points. We can also get more consistent on second serves with more power.”

Also adding wins in singles today for the Hornets were Hall, Miller and freshman Mikus Losbergs. The Hornets’ one loss came in a contest which Clayton nearly pulled off 4-6, 4-6.

The men hope to keep their winning streak alive as they travel to UC Santa Barbara to challenge the Gauchos on Friday, March 4.