Griz fall to nationally ranked DU 4-0

Friday, March 1

Denver, Colo.

5 PM

Montana

Denver

Tom Bittner hits the ball during a tennis match between the Montana Grizzlies and the Whitworth Pirates at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula, Montana on January 20, 2024.

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

3/1/2024 8:51:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Denver Pioneers showed why they are one of top 40 teams in the country Friday night on their home courts in Colorado, beating Montana 4-0 in a dual played to clinch at the Denver Tennis Park.

The Griz had their chances to take an early lead by forcing two of the three doubles matches going to a tiebreaker, but were eventually overpowered by the No. 38 Pioneers who rattled off three consecutive straight-set wins in singles to clinch the win at 4-0.

DU stays perfect on the year at 11-0 while the Grizzlies suffer just their second loss of the season and move to 7-2.

For UM, however, the match was more than just another college dual, it was a litmus test to measure themselves against the top team in the Mountain Region with Big Sky play close at hand.

"Truly proud of how the guys competed today especially in doubles. Going on the road, traveling this morning to play an undefeated nationally ranked team on their home court is a big ask and the team couldn't have competed any harder. Great work by Tom Bittner still not dropping a single set this season in his unfinished match as well," said head coach Jason Brown.

'Almost every member of this Denver team would play #1 in our conference and now we truly know what we have to do to improve when we hit Big Sky play."

In doubles, Fernando Perez and Dragos Bucurescu paired up for the first time this year and nearly pulled off an upset to start the match on court three. The two Grizzlies sent their set to a tiebreaker before falling to DU's Papajcik/Salla pair 7-6 (4) in the extra frame.

Meanwhile on court one Bittner and Chris Zhang were knotted 6-6 in a tiebreaker when the match was clinched and DU took the 1-0 team lead.

In singles, Bittner, the defending Big Sky Player of the Week stayed undefeated at 7-0 this year with an unfinished match on court three. The Grizzly sophomore had beaten DU's Marvin Schaber in the first set 7-5 before play was stopped at the clinch.

UM's other conference player of the week this season Fernando Perez was on the opposite end of a tight first set, falling to Daniel Arbizu 5-7 in the first set of another match that would go unfinished on court two.

The Pioneers claimed wins in straight sets on courts six, with Bucurescu suffering his first collegiate loss, court five, and on court one where Baltazar Wiger-Nordas fell to one of the top 115 players in the nation in Nicolas Cuesta 6-4, 6-1.

Montana will have a short turnaround before its next match in Denver, a neutral site dual against Wichita State that gets underway Saturday at Noon.