Griz fall to Wildcats in Ogden

Friday, March 24

Ogden, Utah

11:30 AM

Montana

Weber State

3/24/2023 5:23:00 PM | Men's Tennis

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By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team dropped the opening dual of its two-match Big Sky Conference road trip, falling to Weber State 5-2 in Ogden on Friday.

The Griz, who have not beaten the Wildcats in Ogden since 2011, started slow with a loss in the doubles round and came out on the wrong end of four different tiebreakers in singles to fall to 9-7 on the season and 1-2 in conference play. Weber improves to 8-6 and 2-0 in league play.

Moritz Stoeger and Guillermo Martin picked up Montana's only two wins of the day, both in straight sets. Stoeger got the best of William Zulch on court four, 6-4, 6-3, to tie the overall match 1-1 in the first singles finish of the afternoon.

Weber State then rattled off three-straight wins on courts two, three, and one to clinch the team victory before Martin finished off Jordan Coutinho 6-3, 6-2 on court six.

"We haven't gotten it together in doubles yet in any way. We don't have any momentum, and it feels like a lack of belief. That sets the tone for the rest of the day. Singles felt pretty even, to be honest, but even is not good enough when you lose doubles," said head coach Jason Brown.

"They're tough. They're always a good team, it's a tough place to play, and they came up with it in the clutch. When the really big points came about, it seemed like they found a first serve or found a great return. They did what they needed to do."

Fernando Perez and Tom Bittner each dropped a tiebreaker in their first sets to lose momentum. Perez fell to Tristan Sarap on court two 7-6 (3), 6-3 for UM's first singles loss. Bittner lost soon after to Connor Kruger 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Grizzly No. 1 Gustav Theilgaard got off to a strong start against first-team all-conference pick Sebastian Buxman, winning the first set 6-1. Buxman rebounded, however, and picked up a third-set tiebreaker to beat Theilgaard 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 (5) to clinch the match for Weber.

The Griz return to action on Sunday when they travel to Pocatello to take on Idaho State in a Big Sky dual starting at 11 a.m.