Shockers knock off shorthanded Griz

Saturday, March 2

Denver, Colo.

Noon

Montana

Wichita State

Chris Zhang returns a serve during a set of a singles 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

3/2/2024 4:59:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Wichita State beat a Montana men's tennis team that was bitten by the injury bug 4-0 in a neutral site dual played to clinch in Denver on Saturday afternoon.

Already missing two of the top players in the lineup at the start of the match, senior Moritz Stoeger was forced to retire during singles as the Shockers handed UM its second-straight loss at the Denver Tennis Park. Montana fell to 7-3 on the season while Wichita State improved to 3-8.

Despite being without the services of Guillermo Martin and Fernando Perez, the Griz put themselves in a position to win the doubles round to start the match but fell just short.

Add onto that a retirement loss of Stoeger to injury in singles and all it took two UM losses for WSU to clinch the 4-0 team win.

"It's disappointing. It's part of sports, but it's disappointing. I think it would have been a really great match if we were full strength," said head coach Jason Brown.

"The guys fought hard and similar to yesterday we some chances in doubles but we were just out gunned without our best lineup."

Before he retired injured in singles, Stoeger and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas were closing in on a doubles win for UM on court two, but fell to WSU's Ju/Hodzic pair 7-5.

On court one, defending Big Sky Player of the Week Tom Bittner and his partner Chris Zhang were knotted 5-5 against the King/Kvantaliani duo when the match was clinched by the Shockers with a 6-1 win on court three.

WSU stretched the lead to 2-0 shortly into the singles round when Stoeger retired, putting even more pressure onto the UM lineup.

Playing in his first-ever D-I college match, Josh Watkins was the next Grizzly to fall, going down 6-3, 6-0 to Ju Ziwen on court six to make it a 3-0 team lead for Wichita.

The Shockers then clinched the match on court one where Wiger-Nordas couldn't recover from a first set loss and dropped the second in a tiebreaker 4-6, 6-7 (3) on court one.

Newcomer Dragos Bucurescu had a good outing for UM, up a set and a break on court five when the match was called, and Zhang had just sent his second set to a tiebreaker as well, but a Grizzly comeback was not to be.

Bittner also remained undefeated on the season at 7-0 when his match was called in the second set at clinch.

Montana will now have six days to heal up before the next match at Lewis-Clark State, which will serve as a tune-up for the Big Sky opener two days later at Idaho on March 10.