Griz make deep runs at ITA Regional Tourney

Thursday, October 17

Las Vegas, Nev.

All Day

Montana

ITA Mountain Regional

10/21/2024 1:03:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Complete Results

By: Montana Sports Information

With just two competitions as a Grizzly under his belt, Montana men's tennis junior Eivind Tandberg has already made big waves in his short time repping the maroon and silver.

The Norwegian came to Missoula from NAIA Lawrenceville Tech in Michigan last spring but had to sit out the season as a greyshirt. Despite not seeing the court, he made a big enough impact behind the scenes to be named the co-recipient of the Kris Nord Grizzly Grit Award – the de facto team MVP.

Now eligible for action, Tandberg made an even bigger splash over the weekend, leading a strong Grizzly charge against some of the top players in the west at the ITA Mountain Regional Tournament in Las Vegas – the premiere event on UM's fall calendar.

In just the second D-I event of his career, Tandberg went 3-0 overall on day one, beating players from Northern Arizona and Utah to earn a place in the main singles draw. He also partnered with freshman Duncan McCall to take two wins and advance to the round of 16 in doubles.

Their run, along with a pair wins from veteran duo Fernando Perez and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, helped the Griz place two teams in the doubles round of 16 – the only program from the Big Sky Conference to do so.

Overall, Montana went 5-5 in singles and 3-2 in doubles against a field consisting of the top 128 players in the region in windy conditions at UNLV. The Griz were one of 16 teams competing, including Air Force, Boise State, BYU, Denver, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana State, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, Weber State.

"It was a good trip. Everyone competed well and I'm very proud of our doubles performance. We got some really tough draws in singles, but that's what you're there for is to find the best players in our region. When you make it through a round or two you get to test yourself against the toughest players and see where you're at. So, it was a great weekend of evaluation." said head coach Jason Brown.

"The shining star for me was Eivind Tandberg. Winning two rounds of quallies and two rounds in the doubles main draw with Duncan McCall - that was really a breakout performance for him. He's a super hard-working guy. This was just his second competition as a Grizzly and he really made some nice adjustments from his first tournament. I'm really proud of his efforts."

Perez was another bright spot for Montana, beating Nevada's Illia Maksymchuk in the first round of the main singles draw before dropping a marathon match to BYU senior Zach Fuchs in a third-set tiebreaker, 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (2).

In doubles, he and Wiger-Nordas shut-out the Applegate/Frey pair from Utah 8-0 to advance to the round of 16. There they ran into the nation's No. 11 ranked pairing in Fuchs and Wally Thayne from BYU, where they started slow, but hung with tournament's top seed in an 8-5 loss.

"Fernando lost an absolute heartbreaker to a massive-serving guy from BYU in singles then had to play the same kid and his partner the next morning in doubles. So, he played a three-hour singles match and had to face that 130 mile-per-hour serve again for breakfast," added Brown.

"That's a special team, so no shame in losing to those guys. We got off to a terrible start and they kind of blew us off the court for the first 20 minutes, but then we played them pretty dead even from there."

Other highlights for the Griz included senior Chris Zhang earning a 6-1, 6-1 win over Nevada's Roberto Hernandez in qualifying singles and McCall beating Utah junior Dylan Applegate 6-2, 6-1 in the consolation round.

Montana returns to action this weekend at home, competing in the Peak Racquet Club's Fall Championships, set for Oct. 25-27 in Missoula.

"All-in-all, I feel like we have the foundations to be a championship team, but we have to really work on the finishing touches. We got a lot of exposure to the things we need to work on, but it was definitely a successful trip overall," said Brown.

ITA MOUNTAIN REGIONAL – MONTANA RESULTS

Qualifying Draw Singles

Thur. Oct. 17
Round of 64
Eivind Tandberg (UM) def. Kai Mills (NAU) 6-3, 7-5
Chris Zhang (UM) def. Roberto Hernandez (UN) 6-1, 6-1
Dylan Jaen (BSU) def. Duncan McCall (UM) 6-4, 6-4

Round of 32
Eivind Tandberg (UM) def. Nicholas Calixto (UU) 6-3, 7-6 (5)
Liam Day (WSU) def. Chris Zhang (UM) 6-1, 6-4

Consolation Round
Duncan McCall (UM) def. Dylan Applegate (UU) 6-2, 6-1

Main Draw Singles

Fri. Oct. 18
Round of 64
Daniel Sancho Arbizu [1] (DU) def. Baltazar Wiger-Nordas (UM) 6-1, 6-1
Liam Day (WSU) def. Eivind Tandberg (UM) 6-1, 6-4
Fernando Perez (UM) def. Illia Maksymchuk (UN) 6-4, 2-0 RET (INJ)

Round of 32
Zach Fuchs (BYU) def. Fernando Perez (UM) 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (2)

Main Draw Doubles

Thur. Oct. 17
Round of 64
Duncan McCall, Eivind Tandberg (UM) def. Gregorie Valente, Paul Theate (UN) 8-6

Fri. Oct. 18
Round of 32
Fernando Perez, Baltazar Wiger-Nordas (UM) def. Dylan Applegate, Charles Frey (UU) 8-0
Duncan McCall, Eivind Tandberg (UM) def. Daniel Torres, Jakub Prachar (NAU) 8-6

Round of 16
Wally Thayne, Zach Fuchs (BYU) def. Fernando Perez, Baltazar Wiger-Nordas (UM) 8-5
John Chin, James Van Herzeele (BSU) def. Duncan McCall, Eivind Tandberg (UM) 8-4