Griz beat Vikings to open Big Sky play

Sunday, February 27

Portland, Ore.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Portland State

Photo by: Derek Johnson

2/27/2022 7:36:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score PDF Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The No. 63 Montana men's tennis team improved to 9-0 on the season with a win on Sunday to make it three-for-three on its three-match trip to Oregon.

But perhaps more importantly, the Griz improved to 1-0 in Big Sky Conference play by enacting revenge on Portland State with a 7-0 sweep of the Vikings at the Tualatin Hills Athletic Center, around the corner from the Nike campus in Beaverton.

Montana eased to its ninth-straight win in the doubles round, then rattled off singles wins on courts five, six, and four, where Gustav Theilgaard once again clinched the team victory for UM for a second-straight match. Montana finished strong with the win in hand, only allowing one match to go to three sets as UM cruised to the shut-out.

"Top to bottom, I couldn't ask for a better road trip. Professional, focused efforts every single day, and we got better as we went along. Today was our best match," said head coach Jason Brown.

"These road wins in conference play are absolutely essential. Without them, you don't get to achieve your goals, and they're all difficult to get no matter what. So, the fact that we got one on the road to start the conference season couldn't be better."

Montana opened the match as they have done in every match this season, with a win in the doubles round.

Milo Benn and Gustav Theilgaard improved to 6-0 as a pair with an easy 6-1 win over PSU's Holtari/Vu duo.

Ed Pudney and Oisin Shaffrey remained undefeated in doubles as well at 9-0 with a 6-3 win over the Vikings' Richards/Plutat duo to give Montana an early 1-0 team advantage and momentum heading into singles.

The bottom of the Grizzly lineup picked up UM's first two wins, with Benn nearly shutting out Otto Holtari on court five 6-1, 6-0, and Sam Baldwin following up with a win soon after on court six, beating Andrew Vu 6-3, 6-1 to put the Griz up 3-0.

Theilgaard was once again strong on court four with a straight-set win over Sam De Vries, shutting him out in the second, 6-4, 6-0 on court four that clinched the win for the Griz.

"Doubles has just been setting the tone for us. Every match on every court has been so solid so far this season. Then we go to singles, and we have faith that we're going to come through in tight spots because we pick up a lot of momentum," added Brown.

"Today, we won six first sets across the board in singles, then it's really tough for teams to make a comeback. So, we put ourselves in that winning position, and everybody just took care of business."

Oisin Shaffrey picked up Montana's next win on court two, rebounding from a pair of losses earlier in the week to beat PSU's Tommy Hsu 6-4, 6-3 on court two to put UM up 5-0.

Pudney continued his dominant start to the season on court one, beating Nils Plutat in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 8-1 on the season and 19-2 overall, including fall tournament results. Pudney has now not allowed an opponent to take a single-set win in six straight matches.

Lawrence Sciglitano picked up the last win of the day for UM, beating Oliver Richards on court three in a third-set superbreaker 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (12-10).

Montana, ranked last week at No. 63 in the nation by the ITA, will now return to Missoula for a two-week training block before playing what could be the first ranked dual in program history, traveling to Spokane to play the No. 46 Gonzaga Bulldogs on March 18.

The Griz then return to conference play the following day, taking on Eastern Washington in Cheney on March 19.