Montana posts strong results at the ITA Regional

Thursday, September 28

USAF Academy, Colo.

All Day

Montana

ITA Mountain Regional

10/1/2023 5:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Complete Results

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team had a doubles pair advance to the tournament quarterfinal, earned three upset wins in the main singles draw and had a quarterfinalist in the consolation singles draw to cap a successful weekend at the ITA Mountain Regional at Air Force.

Having been dealt a hand of tough draws against the best players in the Rocky Mountain West, Montana beat opponents from Utah, Boise State, and UNLV in the main singles bracket, while its losses came from the tournament's overall 1st, 3rd, 7th, 8th, and 16th seeded players.

Tom Bittner and Chris Zhang picked up a pair of big wins in the main doubles draw to advance to the quarterfinal round, where they fell in a tiebreaker to the eventual finalists and overall No. 1 seed from Utah.

Zhang also took two wins in singles, advancing to the quarterfinal of the consolation draw with wins over players from Northern Arizona and UNLV.

The solid results at the premiere tournament of the fall season come a week after the Griz took home both a singles and a doubles title at the Bedford Cup in the Mountains, also hosted by Air Force Sept. 22-24.

"We had zero bad losses, and I think we competed really well. We're closing the gap between us and the best teams in the region and making progress, and that's what the fall season is all about," said head coach Jason Brown.

A week after winning a doubles title together at the Bedford Cup, Bittner and Zhang impressed again with a quarterfinal run in the main regional draw.

To get there, they knocked off BYU's top pair 8-7 (2) in the round of 32 before beating the Zarkovic/Mico duo from Utah State in another close one, coming out on top 8-6 in the round of 16.

In a hard-fought quarterfinal, the Grizzly pair eventually went down to the Busleiman/Bugarikj team from Utah in a tiebreaker, falling 7-8 (3).

Bittner continued to impress early in the tournament on the singles side, earning a day-one win over Jayson Blando of Utah 7-6 (6), 6-2 to advance to the round of 32, where he fell in another three-set thriller to eventual tournament champion Daniel Sancho Arizu of Denver 2-6, 7-5, 3-6.

"I'm excited about Tom and Chris. They played really well together and had some nice singles wins. Tom beat a great player from Utah, and Chris made a run in the back draw and beat one of the guys from the top of the UNLV lineup we lost to last year. It's great to see how well they are competing," added Brown.

Fernando Perez also earned a three-set win on the opening day, beating Caden Moortgat of Boise State in come-from-behind fashion 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Perez then nearly pulled off an upset in the round of 32, beating the tournament's overall No. 16 seed, Marvin Schaber of Denver, in the first set before falling 6-4, 3-6, 4-6.

Sophomore Baltazar Wiger-Nordas was the third Grizzly to earn an upset on day one, beating Thomas Navarro of UNLV 7-6 (4), 6-2 to advance to the round of 32. The Norwegian would then fall to the eight-seed Bruno Krenn of Utah 4-6, 3-6.

After a day one loss, Zhang made the deepest singles run of the weekend for the Grizzlies in the consolation draw. The transfer from North Alabama bounced back to beat Lance Urlaub of Northern Arizona in the opening round 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. He then received a bye in the round of 32 before beating Aaron Bailey of UNLV in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinal.

Zhang finally bowed out in the round of eight, falling to Boise State's Jett Middleton 2-6, 3-6.

Montana now returns to the training courts for the month of October and will cap the fall season in early November at Gonzaga's Bulldog Classic in Spokane.