Griz win doubles, but fall to Pilots in Portland

Friday, March 15

Portland, Ore.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Portland

Guillermo Martin of the Montana Grizzlies stares down the ball before hitting it during a tennis match against the Grand Canyon Lopes at PEAK Racquet Club on February 4, 2024 in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Tanner Ecker/University of Montana

3/15/2024 3:39:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

A shorthanded Montana men's tennis team picked up an upset win in doubles but dropped all six singles matches to the WCC's Portland Pilots in a 6-1 loss at the Louisiana Pacific Tennis Center in Oregon on Friday.

The Griz started the nonconference dual leading 1-0 early on, but with two of their top players resting ahead of Sunday's league match at Portland State were overpowered in singles.

Montana now turns its attention back to conference play after falling to 8-5 overall on the season with an important road dual against the Vikings. The Pilots improve to 5-3 on the year and now prepare to open league play against Gonzaga.

Playing together for just the second time, Grizzlies Guillermo Martin and Dragos Bucurescu paired up to take a 6-4 win over Portland's Vukovic/Tvedt team on court one to open the doubles round.

Montana then clinched the point on court two with Tom Bittner and Chris Zhang getting a 7-5 win over the Pilot's Keremedchiev/Ocana pair to give UM the 1-0 team lead heading to singles.

Montana struggled to retain momentum, however, losing all but one match in straight sets. Regular No. 2 Fernando Perez didn't play at all for UM, and senior Moritz Stoeger sat out the singles round after playing doubles.

Bittner, who suffered his first defeat of the season, was the only Grizzly to force a third set on Friday. The sophomore won the first 6-2 before falling 2-6, 2-6 to UP's Nicolas Ocana in the second and third to put his individual record at 9-1.

"We definitely got what we want out of this match. The guys competed really well, Portland is a tough team at home and the doubles point was outstanding. Dragos and Guillermo's win over Portland's No. 1 team is really nice considering they haven't played much together. But I thought all the guys competed well," said head coach Jason Brown.

"No sad faces today, we're just going to turn the page and focus on Portland State."

Montana and Portland State square off on Sunday, March 17, with opening serves going up at 10 a.m. (MT) from the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton.