Wildcats come back to bounce Griz in Vegas

Friday, January 29

Las Vegas, Nev.

2:30 PM

Montana

Weber State

1/29/2021 9:09:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

On a windy day in Las Vegas, the Montana men's tennis team won the doubles round, but Weber State made the final statement as the Wildcats rebounded from an early deficit to beat the Grizzlies 5-2 at UNLV.

Despite it being an early nonconference matchup due to the league splitting into north and south divisions for the year, the match carried postseason significance, with the Grizzlies picked to win the conference title and Wildcats picked to finish third.

Montana now falls to 1-2 on the season while Weber State improves to 1-1 with plenty of tennis left to play until the two will meet again for another nonconference test on April 18 in Missoula and potentially meet a third time at the Big Sky Championship in early May.

In the marquee matchup on neutral ground, it was the Grizzlies who did what they have done best in recent years – jumped out to an early advantage in the doubles round.

Montana's freshman duo of Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin cruised to a 6-2 win on court three to start the round, as did Oisin Shaffrey and Chase Bartlett on court one to clinch the opening point for UM.

But awhile the doubles match on court two was wrapping up, the momentum at the Fertitta Tennis Complex shifted back to the Wildcat's side of the court with Ed Pudney and Pontus Hallgren falling in a 7-5 nail biter to WSU's Buxman/Serafim pair.

From there, Weber State took the momentum and ran with it, winning five of the six singles matches en-route to the upset win.

"Credit to Weber State, they outplayed us after the doubles round," said head coach Jason Brown.

After the doubles round, WSU leveled the score 1-1 with Bo-Han Li defeating Montana freshman Sam Nicholson 7-5, 6-1.

The Griz regained the lead briefly when Shaffrey improved to 2-1 on the year with a 6-1, 0-6, 6-2 win for UM on court two.

But it was all Wildcats from there out, winning four-straight matches to take the team victory.

UM senior Bartlett then lost in straight sets on court three, followed by Stoeger in three sets on court five. The Wildcats clinched the match on court six, where Milo Benn built leads in both the first and second set, but eventually fell 7-6 (5), 6-5.

Meanwhile, the match of the day between the Big Sky's two highest-rated players – UM's Ed Pudney and WSU's Kris Van Wyk – was a battle as-advertised.

Pudney, the defending Big Sky Player of the Week, rebounded from a first-set loss to win the second but couldn't hold on for the third set win, falling 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to the player with the top UTR in the league.

"Kris Van Wyk was fantastic," said Brown. "He's the best player in the conference and played like it today."

Montana will have a short turnaround before playing its second and third match of the tripleheader tomorrow, facing host UNLV at 10 a.m., followed by an afternoon match against New Mexico State at 3 p.m.