Banged-up Griz fall to Vandals 6-1

Sunday, March 10

Moscow, Idaho

Noon (MT)

Montana

Idaho

Fernando Perez returns a serve during a set of a doubles tennis match against the Whitworth Pirates at the PEAK Racquet Club on January 20, 2024 in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Tanner Ecker/University of Montana

3/10/2024 6:00:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The two-time defending Big Sky champion Idaho Vandals took a 6-1 Big Sky Conference win over the Montana men's tennis team on their home courts inside the Kibbie Dome in Moscow on Sunday afternoon.

In a tight rivalry dual, the Griz and Vandals split the first two doubles matches before Idaho edged-out the opening team point. They carried that momentum into singles where two matches went three sets with four total tiebreakers, but Tom Bittner managed UM's only win of the day to stay undefeated on the season.

Injuries continued to plague the Griz, with Fernando Perez sitting out doubles and forced to serve underhanded in singles with a bad shoulder. Guillermo Marin was also not 100 percent in his three-set loss, and Moritz Stoeger was forced to retire injured while he was up a set on court six.

Montana falls to 8-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play having dropped three of their last four while dealing with injuries after starting the season 7-1. Idaho improves to 2-8 and 1-1 in Big Sky play after welcoming two All-Big Sky players back to the lineup for the first time this season against the Griz.

"Obviously, it was a rough day. Our season is going to be determined by deuce points and tie breaks, and we didn't find a way to get too many of them today. That was the difference," said head coach Jason Brown.

"But our season will really be defined by how we respond to this next weekend, so we just have to heal up and focus on moving forward."

The Grizzlies started on the right foot in doubles with a quick win on court three from Stoeger and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, 6-2 over Idaho's Duron/Salvador pair. The Vandals bounced right back and took a 6-2 win of their own on court two, however, with Bittner and Chris Zhang going down to the Masala/Lai pair to knot the round at one match each.

Guillermo Martin and Dragos Bucurescu, who was subbing in for the injured Perez, went neck and neck in the deciding point, but eventually fell 6-4 to Idaho's Asenov/Medica par to give the home team the 1-0 lead.

In singles, Perez refused to let the Griz go down without a fight, taking on all-conference Taiyo Kurata without the use of his serve.

Despite having to serve underhanded and being hampered by a bad shoulder all day, Perez battled it out, and nearly pulled off the impossible in the second set, taking Kurata to a tiebreaker before eventually falling 6-3, 7-6 (5) to put the Vandals up 2-0.

"Fernando went out like an absolute warrior," said Brown.

"He missed doubles with a bad shoulder but in singles said "put me out there, I'm gonna do everything I can to win," and he did just that, battling a good player super tough."

Wiger-Nordas delivered the shot of the day on court one with an highlight reel-worthy between the legs winner. It wasn't enough though as Francisco Gay pulled out wins in two consecutive tie breakers in his first match of the year to beat the Grizzly sophomore 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2), putting Idaho out to a 3-0 lead.

Guillermo Martin was the next to finish for Montana on court four. This time a Grizzly came out on the right end of a tiebreaker in the first set, but ran out of gas and eventually fell to Sebastian Medica 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-1, to clinch the Vandal win at 4-0.

Soon after, Bittner improved to 8-0 on the season with his first three-set win of the year, beating Matteo Masala in split sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 to put the Griz on the board.

Zhang couldn't get much momentum on court five in a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Mario Duron, and in the final match of the day Stoeger had built an early lead with a first set win, but re-aggravated an injury in the second set and was forced to retire making it a 6-1 final score.

UP NEXT: The Griz return to the road, traveling to Oregon for a pair of matches in the Rose City. UM opens the trip with a nonconference dual against the Portland Pilots on March 15 and continue Big Sky play at Portland State on March 17.