Griz battle in pair of marathon road losses

Friday, January 27

USAF Academy, Colo.

5 PM

Montana

Air Force

Photo by: Derek Johnson

1/28/2023 5:39:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team dropped a pair of marathon nail-biters on the road in the thin air at nearly 7,000 feet at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs on Friday and Saturday.

The Griz were a doubles tiebreaker away from upsetting Air Force for a second-straight season, falling to the Falcons 4-3 in a five-hour dual Friday night.

Less than 12 hours later, UM was back on the indoor courts at the Academy and again fought through another five-hour battle giving the defending WAC champion Abilene Christian Wildcats all they could handle in a 5-2 loss.

Already a young squad without a senior on the roster, Montana lost two of its top singles players to injury against the Wildcats but still managed to force eight of the 12 total matches into three sets.

The Griz fall to 3-3 on the early season, while Air Force improved to 2-0 and Abilene Christian improves jumps to 4-1.

While the team knows there's no such thing as a good loss, the Griz are taking plenty of positives from the weekend slate back to Missoula with them.

"I would say our team's rebuild process is ahead of schedule. We beat Air Force 4-3 with a boatload of seniors last year, and we lost a heartbreaker 3-4 on the road with a whole bunch of freshmen and sophomores this year," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I don't know if I've ever been more proud of the effort after two losses. This is the first time any of these guys have played at altitude, and we had a ton of three-setters with razor-thin margins that could have gone either way. So, I'm real proud of the team effort."

MONTANA vs AIR FORCE

The Griz started the weekend with a near-upset in doubles, with the deciding match in the opening point going to the Falcons in a 7-4 tiebreaker on court two.

UM's Gustav Theilgaard and George Russell opened the round with a win on court one, beating the experienced Waldman/Vorman pair 7-6 (1) to give the Griz an early lead.

Meanwhile, on court three, the freshman/sophomore duo of Tom Bittner and Fernando Perez dropped a close 5-7 decision to the Falcons' Garner/Deaton pair that briefly tied the round at one win each.

Air Force later won the rubber match on court two, with Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin forcing a tiebreaker, but eventually falling 6-7 (4), putting the Falcons out to a 1-0 team lead.

The home team extended its lead early in the singles round, with Jonathan Mascagni beating the defending Big Sky Player of the Week Sam Baldwin in a second-set tiebreaker, 6-3, 7-6 (4) on court four.

Montana rebounded, however, when Stoeger bounced back and took Justin Waldman to three sets, winning on court three 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 to put the Griz on the board with a 1-2 team score.

Theilgaard then tied the match at two with another three-set win on court one, coming back from a loss in the first set to beat Nick Vroman 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Air Force then took a 3-2 team lead with a win on court two, where Bittner lost an early lead after a second-set breaker, falling to Arjun Kersten 6-3, 6-7 (4), 4-6 in the third three-setter for UM of the day.

The Falcons then clinched the win on court five when Perez lost to Phillip Deaton 3-6, 3-6, to put the home team up for good at 4-2.

The Griz closed out the match with a win, however, with Russell beating AJ Moore in a marathon match that featured a tiebreaker in both the first and second set and ended in a superbreaker 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 1-0 (8) to make the team score 4-3.

MONTANA vs ABILENE CHRISTIAN

Not 12 hours after Montana's five-hour endurance test against Air Force, the Griz were back at it against Abilene Christian, who was coming off a 4-3 win over East Tennessee State the previous day in Colorado Springs.

With the loss of Theilgaard and Stoeger, two of the team's most experienced players, to injury against Air Force, the Griz started the match facing an uphill battle against the defending WAC champs.

In doubles, Baldwin and freshman Baltazar Wiger-Nordas couldn't get going in a 6-0 loss to ACU's Chhabra/Scribner pair on court three.

With Stoeger playing injured, he and Russell were close to an upset on court one, eventually falling in a tiebreaker 7-6 (2) to the Wildcats' Kmet/Barranquero pair and handing ACU the opening team point.

Montana then needed four wins in singles if it were to make a comeback against the Wildcats, and the Grizzlies rolled out their best effort. UM pushed all four opening matches on courts one through four to three sets, despite two of the team's top players sitting out and a freshman (Bittner) making a rare start on court one.

Russell won his first set against Chhabra 6-2 on court four, but the freshman would end up falling 6-2, 7-5, 6-1, putting ACU up 2-0.

Perez got his first win of the weekend on court three soon after, beating Barranquero in three sets 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 to make it a 2-1 match.

Making his debut on the No. 1 court, Bittner bounced back for a win in the second set but would eventually fall to Kmet 7-6 (6), 3-6, 6-3, to extend the Wildcat lead, 3-1. They would soon after clinch the match with a win on court two when Baldwin fell to Morozov in yet another three-setter 6-7 (9), 6-4, 3-6.

UM freshman Wiger-Nordas picked up a highlight win on court six after ACU clinched the match, beating Jose Rastrojo - who opened the year with an upset win over his opponent from No. 3 TCU – in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.

Montana now prepares to return to the road with two more challenging nonconference duals at UNLV on Feb. 10 and UC San Diego on Feb. 11 in Las Vegas.