Saturday, March 18
Boise, Idaho
Noon
Montana
4
vs
1
San Francisco
Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/UM Athletics
Griz bounce back for win over USF
3/18/2023 6:49:00 PM | Men's Tennis
The Montana men's tennis team rebounded from a loss in the doubles round to win four-straight singles matches to defeat the San Francisco Dons 4-1 in a nonconference dual at the Appleton Tennis Center in Boise on Saturday afternoon.
The win gets Montana's three-match spring break trip to Boise off on the right foot and improves the Griz to 8-5 on the season. San Francisco, which was nationally ranked a year ago at this time, slides to 1-10.
The Griz entered the match 0-5 on the season when losing the doubles point. That all changed when the Griz responded following a narrow loss in a tiebreaker in the doubles round and recaptured the momentum with four straight-set wins.
"This is the first time we've overcome that kind of adversity all season. That was the big thing for me," said head coach Jason Brown.
"We talked in the huddle after doubles, which was really close, and I said to use this as an opportunity to respond. Use it as an opportunity to step up instead of getting down, and they couldn't have done better. It was an A-plus in that regard. So, it was a good win."
USF got off to the early lead in the doubles round with the Gould/Cortimigilla pair taking a 6-3 win over UM's all-conference duo of Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin.
Montana's sophomore/freshman No. 1 pair of Gustav Theilgaard and George Russell then improved to 7-3 together on the season with a 6-4 win over USF's Garpered/Giraldez pair to level the score 1-1.
In the rubber match, Tom Bittner and Fernando Perez pushed USF's Kuraica/Hoffman pair to the brink before falling in the breaker, needing a couple extra points in the process, 6-7 (7-9).
After Brown's pep talk between rounds, the Griz began to reverse their own fortunes.
Baltazar Wiger-Nordas continued his hot streak in singles, winning on court six 6-1, 6-2 for UM's first win of the day. In his last three matches, the Norwegian has dominated, outscoring his opponents 36-5 over six sets of tennis.
Fernando Perez followed that up with a win on court three to improve to 7-3 on the season, beating Steve Gould 6-1, 6-4 to put the Griz up 2-1 in the team tally. Soon after, fellow sophomore Sam Baldwin extended Montana's lead with a 6-4, 7-5 win on court four that put UM up 3-1.
It was freshman Tom Bittner who clinched the win for the Grizzlies on court No. 2, beating fellow German and former German age-grade champion Moritz Hoffman in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, putting UM up for good 4-1.
UP NEXT: Montana returns to action Sunday against the host Boise State Broncos. The start time at the Appleton Tennis Center has been moved from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to allow the courts to warm up. Links to live video and live scoring of the match can be found at GoGriz.com/mten.
The win gets Montana's three-match spring break trip to Boise off on the right foot and improves the Griz to 8-5 on the season. San Francisco, which was nationally ranked a year ago at this time, slides to 1-10.
The Griz entered the match 0-5 on the season when losing the doubles point. That all changed when the Griz responded following a narrow loss in a tiebreaker in the doubles round and recaptured the momentum with four straight-set wins.
"This is the first time we've overcome that kind of adversity all season. That was the big thing for me," said head coach Jason Brown.
"We talked in the huddle after doubles, which was really close, and I said to use this as an opportunity to respond. Use it as an opportunity to step up instead of getting down, and they couldn't have done better. It was an A-plus in that regard. So, it was a good win."
USF got off to the early lead in the doubles round with the Gould/Cortimigilla pair taking a 6-3 win over UM's all-conference duo of Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin.
Montana's sophomore/freshman No. 1 pair of Gustav Theilgaard and George Russell then improved to 7-3 together on the season with a 6-4 win over USF's Garpered/Giraldez pair to level the score 1-1.
In the rubber match, Tom Bittner and Fernando Perez pushed USF's Kuraica/Hoffman pair to the brink before falling in the breaker, needing a couple extra points in the process, 6-7 (7-9).
After Brown's pep talk between rounds, the Griz began to reverse their own fortunes.
Baltazar Wiger-Nordas continued his hot streak in singles, winning on court six 6-1, 6-2 for UM's first win of the day. In his last three matches, the Norwegian has dominated, outscoring his opponents 36-5 over six sets of tennis.
Fernando Perez followed that up with a win on court three to improve to 7-3 on the season, beating Steve Gould 6-1, 6-4 to put the Griz up 2-1 in the team tally. Soon after, fellow sophomore Sam Baldwin extended Montana's lead with a 6-4, 7-5 win on court four that put UM up 3-1.
It was freshman Tom Bittner who clinched the win for the Grizzlies on court No. 2, beating fellow German and former German age-grade champion Moritz Hoffman in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, putting UM up for good 4-1.
UP NEXT: Montana returns to action Sunday against the host Boise State Broncos. The start time at the Appleton Tennis Center has been moved from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to allow the courts to warm up. Links to live video and live scoring of the match can be found at GoGriz.com/mten.
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
3,1,2
#1 Singles Match
123
650
Nil Giraldez / 0 [USF]
42UF
#2 Singles Match
12
66
Moritz Hoffman / 0 [USF]
24
#3 Singles Match
12
66
Stevie Gould / 0 [USF]
14
#4 Singles Match
12
67
Nikola Kuraica / 0 [USF]
45
#5 Singles Match
123
650
Johan Garpered / 0 [USF]
37UF
#6 Singles Match
12
66
Davide Cortimigilia / 0 [USF]
12
Order of Finish:
6,3,4,2
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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