Griz netters take weekend split at Whitman and Gonzaga

Friday, February 17

Walla Walla, Wash.

3 PM (MT)

Montana

Whitman

Griz netters take weekend split at Whitman and Gonzaga

2/19/2023 4:37:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team split a pair of matches on its road trip to Washington over the weekend, shutting out Whitman College 7-0 on Friday, then being shut out at Gonzaga 0-7 on Sunday.

The Griz now sit at 4-4 on the season, with D-III Whitman sitting at 0-4 and the surging Bulldogs improving to 5-2, including a big upset over Utah in late January.

"It was a tale of two cities this weekend, in that Gonzaga did to us exactly what we did to Whitman. We took away all hope early. We had a dominant effort in doubles and got off to hot starts in singles. We took our business against Whitman, and Gonzaga took care of business against us," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I still think we come out of this weekend a better tennis team, however, and that's the goal of all these matches in the build-up to conference play."

Montana 7, Whitman 0

The Griz put together a complete performance against the Blues, picking up their fourth 7-0 shut-out of the season, with UM now blanking its opponent in each win.

The Griz won the doubles point and didn't lose more than two games in the process. That dominance carried over to singles, where UM swept the Blues in straight sets on each court.

Freshman Tom Bittner threw a shut-out on court two, beating Lucas Huang 6-0, 6-0. As did junior Guillermo Martin on court six, beating Alejandro Raffo 6-0, 6-0.

On court one, Gustav Theilgaard only allowed one game lost in each of his two sets, beating Harshvardhan Chopra easily 6-1, 6-1.

Moritz Stoeger, Fernando Perez, and Sam Baldwin completed the shut-out for the Griz, each taking wins on courts three, four, and five, respectively.

Montana 0, Gonzaga 7

Montana fell behind early in doubles and never caught up against the veteran Zags. GU played three seniors and three juniors in their lineup Sunday, taking on a Griz team with only one junior, three sophomores, and two freshmen in their six-man lineup.

GU is also off to one of the hottest starts in program history, having upset Utah at the ITA Kickoff and demolishing the defending Big Sky Champion Idaho Vandals 6-1 last week.

In doubles, the UM pair of Bittner and Perez on court three were leading 4-3 when Gonzaga clinched the opening point with a quick 6-1 win on court one and a 6-2 win on court two.

Gonzaga kept the momentum in singles, beating the Grizzlies in straight sets up and down the lineup to take the 7-0 win on their home courts.

Theilgaard nearly picked up a win in the second set, eventually falling to GU's Sasha Trkulja 6-1, 7-5. UM freshman Baltazar Wiger-Nordas was also close to a second-set win on court six, forcing a tiebreaker against Pablo Galvan before losing 6-3, 7-6 (2).

"After the match, I told the guys it was good to see a team like that because if we can approach that level at the end of April, we'll fulfill all our goals as a team. It was a good experience because it's what we need to be able to do," added Brown.

UP NEXT: Montana heads to California this coming week for a pair of challenging matches, taking on UC Davis on Friday before opening Big Sky Conference play at Sacramento State Saturday.