Montana in Colorado to face No. 38 DU and Wichita State

At 7-1 on the season, the Montana men's tennis team has been ramping up the competition in preparation for the start of Big Sky play next week.

This weekend the Griz will face their toughest test of the season to date, and perhaps the toughest test of the last decade as UM travels to Colorado to take on No. 38 Denver University in a Friday evening dual.

At 10-0 and having already been ranked as high as No. 28 this season, the Pioneers are the highest ranked team Montana has faced since 2017 when they played No. 5 Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

The Griz and Pioneers square off at 5 p.m. Friday. The following morning Montana will cap the trip to Denver with a neutral site, first-ever meeting against Wichita State (2-8) at noon. Both matches are set to be played indoors at the Denver Tennis Park. Links to live streaming and scoring for booth matches can be found at GoGriz.com.

Montana heads to Colorado fresh from sweeping a road trip to Grand Forks last week where the Griz picked up a pair of wins over Marquette and North Dakota, and Tom Bittner put in a Big Sky Player of the Week performance.

With conference play around the corner, Grizzly head coach Jason Brown says the pressure is off as the Grizzlies look to test themselves against the best team in the region before the business end of the season rolls around.

"Denver has really put together an outstanding team and Drew Eberly does an amazing job with those guys, so it will be fun to get to play them there. Our team also did well at altitude this fall, so I'm excited about that," said Brown.

"I think that sometimes when you play a level up it really exposes the things you need to work on, more so than when you squeak out a couple of victories against teams that are about at our level. You can figure out a lot of things that you really need to get better at. So, no pressure on us. We'll go down there looking for some wins and at very least coming back with plenty to work on."

Bittner has been one of the big reasons Montana enters this week at 7-1, coming of another big weekend in Grand Forks to stay undefeated on the season at 7-0 in singles and 3-2 overall in doubles.

The Grizzly sophomore was 2-0 in singles, winning both matches decisively in straight sets. He was also 1-0 in doubles, and was twice the clincher against the Golden Hawks, sealing the UM win in both singles and doubles.

Against Marquette Bittner partnered with Chris Zhang to clinch the doubles point with a 6-3 win on court two over MU's Jauch/Schaadt pair. He then clinched the team win for UM on court three singles with a 6-2, 6-4, win over Golden Eagle senior Jan Jauch, putting UM up 4-0 en route to a 5-2 win.

Against North Dakota, Bittner beat Jarall Yasin in straight sets 6-0, 6-2 on court three to put UM up 3-0, which led to a 4-3 UM team win over the Hawks.

On Wednesday he was named Big Sky Player of the Week for the first time in his career.

"It feels really, really good," said Bittner.

"I think we put a very good effort in on the weekend across the board. Even if some guys weren't playing their best, we had a lot of motivation. But I feel like everything is going my way lately and I have a lot of confidence. I feel like I've improved a lot too. I worked hard in the fall and it's good that I see that it's like paying off now."

Bittner holds the most wins for the Griz with seven, but others are not far off. UM has three more in the lineup with six wins including No. 1 and former Big Sky Player of the Week Fernando Perez at 6-2, senior Moritz Stoeger at 6-1, and junior Chris Zhang at 6-1.

SCOUTING DU: Ranked No. 38 in the nation, Denver is coming off a pair of impressive road wins, beating Butler 7-0 and Wisconsin 6-1 in Madison last week. The Pioneers have already knocked off regional rivals in Utah, Utah State, and Boise State this season, and beat Idaho State 6-1 in its only other match against a Big Sky team.

DU is led by junior Daniel Sancho Arbzu who is undefeated in singles at 10-0 primarily playing in the No. 2 slot.

SCOUTING THE SHOCKERS: Wichita State heads to Denver at 2-8 in the midst of a challenging nonconference season. They've lost five in a row, three of which have been on the road with two against ranked opponents.

One of their two wins came back on Jan. 11 when they went to Phoenix and beat the same Grand Canyon team Montana beat 5-2 before falling to Big Sky preseason favorites Northern Arizona 4-0 in Tempe.

As usual, the doubles point will be crucial for the Griz against WSU, with the Shockers only winning three opening points so far this season. Doubles has been a strength for UM, with six points on their resume to date.

UP NEXT: Montana heads west for a tune-up against Lewis-Clark State March 8 before opening Big Sky play at Idaho on Sunday, March 10 inside the Kibbie Dome.

Montana in Colorado to face No. 38 DU and Wichita State

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Players Mentioned

Tom Bittner

Fernando Perez

Moritz Stoeger

Chris Zhang

University of Montana Athletics