Griz comeback attempt falls short in 4-3 nail-biter

Sunday, April 3

Missoula, Mont.

10:30 AM

Montana

Northern Arizona

Photo by: Tommy Martino

Griz comeback attempt falls short in 4-3 nail-biter

4/3/2022 6:40:00 PM | Men's Tennis

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By: Montana Sports Information

College tennis matches just don't get any closer.

A furious comeback attempt by the No. 71 Montana men's tennis team fell just short Sunday as the Griz dropped a 4-3 thriller to preseason conference favorite Northern Arizona at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula.

It was a result that rested on a knife-edge for over an hour, with four of the six singles matches going to a third set and the final two deciding matches needing extra play for a winner to be determined. Call it the tennis equivalent of double overtime.

Trailing 3-2 and needing wins on the bottom two courts to complete the rally, Montana sophomore Moritz Stoeger earned a gutsy victory in a third-set tiebreaker on court five to tie the match three-all.

Meanwhile, UM senior Milo Benn won his second set to force a third against NAU's Dani Torres on court six. With all eyes at the Peak on them, Benn fought off four different match points in the final two frames but would eventually run out of gas, falling 7-5 in the decider to give the Lumberjacks the win.

"That's a that's a hell of a college tennis match right there," said UM head coach Jason Brown.

"It came down to the wire on so many courts, and I felt like a lot of things didn't break our way. Hats off to NAU, though. They came up with the goods in tight spots. They're picked to win the conference for a reason, but that one really hurts because it was a winnable match for us."

The loss, Montana's first at home since 2019, puts the Griz at 12-2 on the season and 4-1 in Big Sky play – still in the driver's seat to return to the conference championship at the end of the month. Northern Arizona improves to 15-8 overall and 3-2 in league action with three regular-season matches to play.

Gallery: (4-3-2022) MTEN: vs Northern Arizona (4.3.22)

Montana started the match trailing 1-0 after suffering just its second loss in the doubles round this season.

Benn and Gustav Theilgaard fell to 8-2 as a pair on court three this year, losing to NAU's Zomber/Dillon pair 3-6.

On court two, Lawrence Sciglitano and Stoeger built a 3-2 lead but dropped a break point and watched the lead slip away, trailing 3-5 before eventually falling 3-6 to clinch the opening point for the visitors.

Meanwhile, on court one, Ed Pudney and Oisin Shaffrey were battling their way back from a 0-3 deficit to tie the match 4-4 when the Lumberjacks clinched, leaving it unfinished.

Pudney kept up his inspiring play in the singles round with a straight-set win on court one, beating the 2019 Big Sky Freshman of the Year Facundo Tumosa 6-3, 6-3 to tie the team score 1-1 as he continued to battle through injury.

The Lumberjacks then reclaimed the lead 2-1 with a win for Eban Straker-Meads over Lawrence Sciglitano 6-3, 6-4 on court two.

Theilgaard then showed he was human after all, dropping his first singles match of the season. The defending Big Sky Player of the Week started off strong on court four with a 6-1 win in the first set. His opponent, NAU's Dominik Buzonics, then found another gear, rolling to wins in the second and third 6-0, 6-3, to extend the visitor's lead 3-1 in the team score.

Shaffrey then put the Griz back in the win column on court three, bouncing back from a second-set loss to beat Maciej Ziomber 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, and put Montana back in striking distance, trailing 2-3 with two matches left to play.

Stoeger gave the Griz the boost they needed on court five, beating NAU's Alex Groves 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (4) in a thrilling tiebreaker that briefly tied the team score 3-3.

With the match in his control, Benn suffered too many unforced errors at inopportune times and let a 2-0 third-set lead slip away against Torres, eventually falling 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 to seal the win for NAU.

"If you told me at the start of the season we'd be 12-2 at this point, I'd be satisfied. But we'll get back at it. We've got three more conference matches ahead, and sometimes these kinds of losses are catalysts for a championship season. So, we're going to treat it as such," added Brown.

Montana can still determine its own postseason and championship fate in the coming weeks. UM next hosts Sacramento State, the last team to be the Grizzlies at home back in 2019, on Tuesday, April 12, at the Peak.

The Grizzlies then finish the regular season with two crucial conference road matches, traveling to Idaho, who beat NAU in Flagstaff a week ago, on April 16.

UM then closes out the regular season in Bozeman against the first-place Bobcats in the annual Brawl of the Wild match on April 23. With MSU having beaten NAU on Friday, three straight wins in the coming weeks could keep the Griz in contention for the program's first regular-season Big Sky championship.