Perez battles through three sets to seal bounce-back win for Griz

Sunday, February 4

Missoula, Mont.

9 AM

Montana

Grand Canyon

Perez battles through three sets to seal bounce-back win for Griz

2/4/2024 4:35:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team won a come-from-behind thriller over Grand Canyon 4-1 at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula on Sunday in a match played to clinch that was closer that the final score would indicate.

After a lackluster performance in doubles that put the Griz down 1-0 early in the dual, Montana rebounded to win four-straight singles matches, two of which came in three, nail-biting sets.

With the win Montana improves to 4-0 on the season after sweeping Eastern Washington in a nonconference dual on Friday, while GCU, perennial contenders in the WAC, drops to 1-2 on the early season.

Grizzly junior Fernando Perez provided the heroics for UM, recovering from a narrow loss in the first set to grind out a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 marathon win over fellow Spaniard Pablo Salvador that took over two hours, but clinched the team win for the Griz.

It wasn't just Perez that had to battle, however. Fellow junior Guillermo Martin also had to bounce back from a second-set loss on court three to claim a win.

Moritz Stoeger overcame a slow start in singles as well. Finding himself trailing 1-3 early in the first set, the senior changed strategies and rolled to a straight-set win on court five to give the Griz three hard-fought victories.

Meanwhile sophomore Tom Bittner was dominant on court three, winning 6-2, 6-3 to help shift momentum inside the Peak and set up the team win for the Griz, with two matches left unfinished.

"That was a really nice college tennis match. I couldn't be happier with the way our guys responded in a tough situation with the things we've been talking about. You're going to lose doubles points. How do you respond? You're going to lose some sets. How do you respond? Across the board the team worked together and showed a lot of heart," said head coach Jason Brown.

"You could tell we have a lot of guys who really want to play for and with each other and wanted to win for the University of Montana, and I think they did a great job doing that today. It was a really nice when inside the Peak."

The clincher from Nando! 👏👏👏#GoGriz #GrizMTEN pic.twitter.com/DqHAJI2H7e
— Montana Griz Men's Tennis 🎾 (@MontanaGrizMTEN) February 4, 2024

The doubles round started off with each team exchanging blows and trading break points on courts two and three, as Grand Canyon got on the board first with plenty of intensity out of the gates.

Bittner and Chris Zhang were the first Grizzlies to fall in doubles as the Antelopes' Rosatti/Salvador pair rode the early momentum to a 6-1 win on court two.

The visitors clinched the opening team point on court three when a rally from Stoeger and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas stalled in a 3-6 loss, putting GCU up 1-0 in the team score heading into singles.

In singles, Bittner provided the spark the Griz needed on court three, starting UM's comeback with a clean 6-2, 6-3 win over David Wekesa that tied the team score 1-1 and helped pull the momentum back to Montana.

Meanwhile on court five, Stoeger was trailing GCU's Jonathan De silva 3-1 before a chat with Brown and a change of strategy to attack the visitors forehand started paying dividends, pressuring De Silva into unforced errors.

With a newfound leg-up in the mental match, the Grizzly team captain began to pour on the points, rattling off three-straight games to take a 4-3 lead and not looking back, beating De Silva 6-4, 6-3 in two sets and giving UM its first team lead at 2-1.

"Tennis is a funny sport in that, if you're not having your best day, and Mo (Stoeger) wasn't – he felt like he didn't sleep well and was sluggish, maybe it's not about us playing well. How can we make the other guy play worse? He (De Silva) is a talented player – played one for them last year – but we made him uncomfortable out there and he couldn't adjust," said Brown.

"Mo is such a coachable, veteran leader in every way. We can have that dialog where it's like, he, let's do this, or this is what I think's going to work, and he buys into the process. A lot of his win wasn't about today but getting better for the season, and we got both today."

Even though the Grizzlies had taken the lead, the result was still far from certain with Martin was trailing in the second set on court three and Perez dropping his first set, making it anybody's match.

After falling 4-6 in his second set Martin regained his form the first set, pouring it on in the third and beating Alfred Almassi 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, to put UM up 3-1 in the team total.

Then it was Perez' turn.

Battling a player he's known since junior tennis in Spain, the Grizzly found himself trailing 3-5 early in the first set, but got Salvador running and came back to tied it 5-5 before dropping the final two games and with them, the first set. Then the comeback began.

Playing marathon point after marathon point, Perez worked his way to a 6-2 win in the second set to knot the match at a set apiece. He then fought through two missed match points in the third before finally clinching for the Griz in the third with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 win.

"That was great match. His opponent has ATP points, he's a real player, and Fernando managed himself really well. He had some chances to win it a little sooner but just stayed the course and ground it out," Brown added.

Perez says he was happy to get the win for his teammates and to help keep the Griz undefeated on the year.

"It feels unbelievable. It was a tough match, coming back from a set down and grinding against Spanish guy that I knew from back home. I had a couple match points serving 5-3 up, but I was able to close it out. So, it feels good clinching for the team," he said.

"I didn't really change a lot but I feel like I was just mentally tough. I had a couple deuce points in the first set that I kind of got unlucky on, but I just kept playing my game. I tried to be a bit more aggressive to close points toward the end and I think I served better than in the first set, so it was a good game plan."

The Griz have now won two straight against the 'Lopes and are 2-2 against them in the last decade. UM will return the home-and-home with GCU next spring in Phoenix.

Montana returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 10, with a nonconference dual against Whitman at the Peak in Missoula – the Grizzlies final home match until March 28.