Broncos best Griz in Boise

Sunday, March 19

Boise, Idaho

3 PM

Montana

Boise State

The University of Montana men’s tennis team plays against Eastern Washington at PEAK Racquet Club in Missoula on Sunday, March 5, 2023.

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/UM Athletics

3/19/2023 6:11:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The No. 59-ranked Boise State Broncos defended their home courts at the Appleton Tennis Center on Sunday, defeating the Montana men's tennis squad 6-1 in Boise.

The Broncos avenged last year's UM upset with two quick wins in doubles and five straight-set wins in singles to put the young Grizzlies at 1-1 on their three-match trip to the City of Trees.

Montana entered the match as winners of four straight, having knocked off the San Francisco Dons 4-1 on Saturday in Boise.

The Griz now slide to 8-6 on the season and are 4-4 on the road. The nationally-ranked Broncos, meanwhile, remain red-hot at 14-4 overall and a perfect 9-0 in Boise, extending their win streak to seven straight.

Montana was without the use of two of its top players for much of the match. All-Big Sky junior Moritz Stoeger missed the match due to a lingering health issue from his match against USF, and Grizzly No. 1 Gustav Theilgaard sat out the singles round after toughing out the doubles with a dose of food poisoning.

Grizzly sophomore Fernando Perez picked up the lone win of the day for UM in singles, playing just his second match of the year on court two. Perez bounced back from a first-set tiebreaker loss to win 6-7 (3), 6-2, 1-0 (8) over Caden Moortgat in a third-set superbreaker in the final match of the afternoon.

"Tough day, tough conditions, and a very tough home team in Boise State. I knew after beating them last year they would come out fully prepared and not overlook us. They outplayed us from the start," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I need to do a better job in preparing this team for when they step up in competition. This loss is on me as the coach. Obviously missing our two leaders in Moritz and Gustav greatly diminished our chances of the upset. But I did feel both Fernando in winning his singles match, and Guillermo in a tight loss, both showed a lot of grit and a high level of tennis out there."

To start the match in doubles, UM's top pair of George Russell and Gustav Theilgaard slid to 7-4 on the season together, falling to BSU's Costas/Bott duo in short order 6-1 after Theilgaard's injury.

The Broncos clinched the opening point with another quick win on court three, where Tom Bittner and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas went down to the Marquardt/Minakata pair 6-2. Meanwhile, Guillermo Martin and Fernando Perez were locked in a battle on court two, tied 5-5 when the round was stopped.

Boise retained the momentum headed into the singles round, taking three straight-set wins on courts six, four, and three to clinch the win at 4-0.

Freshman George Russell was the first Grizzly to fall, losing 6-2, 6-1, to Ryo Minakata on court six. Sophomore Sam Baldwin lost soon after, going down to James Van Herzeele 6-3, 6-2 on court three.

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas then saw his hot streak of three-straight wins come to an end, falling 6-1, 6-4, on court four to Idriss Haddouch to clinch the match for Boise. It was just the freshman's second loss of the season, now sitting 6-2 in his first year at UM.

Tom Bittner also had his win streak snapped on court one, with the freshman falling to Simon Arca Costas 6-3, 6-1 for UM's fourth straight-set loss. On court five, Guillermo Martin nearly pulled out a win in his first set before falling to John Chin 6-7 (5), 3-6.

In the final match of the day, Perez finally got the Griz on the board with his three-set thriller to make it a 6-1 final for the Broncos.

UP NEXT: Montana will cap its trip to Boise with one final nonconference neutral site tune-up against D-III George Fox at 10 a.m. on Monday morning on BSU's indoor courts.

The Griz then prepare to enter the heart of Big Sky play, returning to I-15 next Friday and Saturday for key league matches at Weber State and Idaho State.