Griz beat Blues 7-0 to stay undefeated

Saturday, February 10

Missoula, Mont.

10:30 AM

Montana

Whitman

2/10/2024 4:13:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team entered Saturday's match against Whitman looking to continue its dominant ways at home inside the Peak Racquet Club.

With the program's fourth shutout in five matches, the Grizzlies did just that Saturday, easily beating the visiting Blues 7-0 at the Peak with each win coming in straight sets. The victory improves Montana to 5-0 on the season, while the Blues drop to 0-4.

"Whitman is a really, really well-coached D-III team that came in here fired up with a lot of energy and it was a good response from our guys to step it up and get the win. We came out and played better in doubles than we did against Grand Canyon, and that area still needs improvement, but we took care of business in singles," said head coach Jason Brown.

"It was just nice to be able to rest a few guys and get extra reps for some others while not skipping a beat. That says a lot about our depth. But I love the idea of getting through the first two months of the season undefeated at the Peak and now we get to go test ourselves against Gonzaga next weekend."

Gallery: (2-10-2024) MTEN: vs. Whitman

Senior Moritz Stoeger wasted no time taking wins in doubles and singles, losing just one game in three total sets of tennis.

With his doubles partner, freshman Dragos Bucurescu, the pair steamrolled Whitman's Luo/Yang pair 6-0 in about 10 minutes of play to get Montana started in an opening round win that put the Griz up 1-0.

Stoeger followed that up with another fast and authoritative win in singles on court three, beating Braeden Thomas 6-1, 6-0, in short order to extend Montana's team lead to 2-0 early in the round.

Chris Zhang and Tom Bittner, who clinched the doubles point for UM as a pair, each cruised to singles wins as well, with Bittner clinching the team victory for the Griz with the team's third-straight victory.

Zhang was the second match of the day to finish, beating Diego Guzman on court four 6-0, 6-2, to put UM up 3-0. Bittner finished his singles match soon after on court two, beating Artem Manov 6-0, 6-3 to seal the win for Montana at 4-0.

Defending Big Sky Player of the Week Fernando Perez took his fifth-straight win by beating Cameron Yang on court one 6-2, 6-4, to extend the UM lead to 5-0.

Bucurescu, who only just joined the program in mid-January, got another win for the Griz – his third on the season, beating Charles Rush 6-4, 6-1 on court five to put UM up 6-0.

Senior Josh Watkins then capped the day for Montana with another straight-set win, beating Charles Boyden 7-5, 6-2 to make the final team score 7-0.

The Griz now prepare for their toughest test of the season on Feb. 18, traveling to Spokane to take on Gonzaga (2-1) in a week's time at 11 a.m. at the Stevens Tennis Center.