Griz win tussle with Wildcats to move to 3-0 in league play

Saturday, March 26

Missoula, Mont.

4 PM

Montana

Weber State

Photo by: Derek Johnson

Griz win tussle with Wildcats to move to 3-0 in league play

3/26/2022 9:46:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score PDF Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

MISSOULA, Mont. - The No. 66 Montana men's tennis team battled back from a loss in the doubles round to take a tense 4-3 win over a game Weber State squad at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula on Saturday.

In a back-and-forth match that could have gone either way, the middle of the singles lineup came through for the Griz with straight-set wins on courts four and five and a pair of come-from-behind three-set wins on courts two and three.

The victory improves Montana to 11-1 on the season and, more importantly, 3-0 in Big Sky play while keeping the Grizzlies undefeated at home for the past two seasons at 26-2 since 2018.

"I think we got very fortunate today. That was a really inspired Weber State team who brought a ton of energy into our building and put us in a really, really tough spot. But the middle of our lineup did an amazing job just taking care of business,' said head coach Jason Brown.

Weber state lived up to their billing as one of the top doubles teams in the region to start the match, having already beaten Oregon, Hawaii, and Air Force in the opening round this season.

The Wildcats came out with energy, jumping out to an early lead on courts one and two, taking advantage of unforced errors from the Griz.

Montana got the first win of the round, however, with the senior/freshman combo of Milo Benn and Gustav Theilgaard rolling to a 6-1 win over WSU's Buxman/Li pair on court three to put UM up 1-0.

Weber then bounced back with a win on court one, with UM's top pair of Ed Pudney and Oisin Shaffrey suffering just their second doubles loss of the season 3-6 to WSU's Sarap/Marouani pair.

In a tense match on court two, UM's Lawrence Sciglitano and Moritz Stoeger went back and forth with Arthur Serafim and Jordan Coutiinho, but couldn't land enough shots when needed, falling 4-6 in the doubles rubber match to put WSU up 1-0 in the team score.

In singles, Theilgaard remained undefeated on the year at 9-0 with his ninth straight-set win of the season, bouncing back from an early second-set deficit on court four to win 6-3, 6-4, leveling the team score 1-1.

Shaffrey then put the Griz up 2-1 with a win on court three over Tristan Sarap, rebounding from a first set loss to cruise to a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory. The win also put added pressure and import on the other active matches as each team struggled to assert itself.

Meanwhile, on court two, the most heated match of the day was being battled out between Sciglitano and Elyes Marouani, raising the temperature and the volume of the crowd inside the Peak with every point.

After dropping the first set 3-6, the Grizzly junior battled back in the second set, picking up a break point to go up 3-2, losing the lead, then picking up another break to take a 5-4 lead, eventually winning the set 6-4.

Sciglitano then carried the momentum with more well-placed shots in the third and deciding set, overcoming Marouani's emotion to win 6-3, and completing the 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 come-from-behind win to put UM up 3-1 in the team score.

"Luckily, I had (assistant coach) Ethan (Vaughn) on my court, and he just kept telling me 'tunnel vision,' and just did all the fighting that I could. I wanted to stay out there as long as possible. Then when Oisin got a win that gave me a push, and from there I was able to take that energy and get the win in the end," said Sciglitano.

"I'm so proud of all the boys today. I think we all had tunnel vision, and everyone was so focused."

At the first position, Pudney, who had been recovering from an injury sustained a week ago, left everything on the court against Sebastian Buxman in another back-and-forth match.

The Grizzly senior opened in the driver's seat with a 6-3 win in the first set, but ran out of gas in the second and third, battling through obvious pain and falling 4-6, 5-7 in the final two sets to cut into UM's team lead and make it a 3-2 match.

Montana then clinched the match on court five when Moritz Stoeger took advantage of the momentum shift from Sciglitano's win and powered his way to a clean 6-2, 6-3 win over Bo-Han Li that put the Griz up for good, 4-2.

"If we want to win the Big Sky, we're going to have to win matches after losing the doubles point. We're not just going to start with a one-zero lead for the entire season. There's too much parity in the league," added Brown.

"We got it done today. Not in a pretty fashion, but in the end, a win is a win, and we'll take it and move on."

UP NEXT: Montana continues its Big Sky gauntlet at home next week when the upstart Idaho State Bengals and defending champion Northern Arizona Lumberjacks come to Missoula on April 2 and 3, respectively.