Hornets outlast Griz in Big Sky dual

Thursday, March 28

Missoula, Mont.

11 AM

Montana

Sacramento State

3/28/2024 5:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team dropped its first home match of the season with perennial Big Sky powerhouse Sacramento State earning a tight 5-2 win over the Grizzlies Thursday afternoon at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula.

As it often does in a closely contested league match, the doubles point proved to be a pivotal factor between the two teams. The Griz split matches on courts one and three before the Hornets eked out a win in the rubber match to claim a 1-0 lead.

Montana then won two of three singles matches at the bottom of the lineup and pushed two sets to a tiebreaker at the top, but Sac State's all-conference leadoff hitters proved too strong on courts one through three as the Hornets clinched the match at 4-1 before going on to win 5-2.

The Griz drop to 11-7 overall and 1-2 in conference play, while the Hornets improve to 11-5 and 3-1 in league action, with their only loss coming 4-3 against the preseason favorite Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.

"I'm not going to take anything away from Sac State today. They stepped up in some spots where we were doing the right things, but they came up with it. A four-all deuce point in the clinching doubles and the guy hits an unbelievable return winner. That's the kind of stuff that wins college duals. It comes down to a handful of points either way, and that's going to be the rest of the season for us. There's a lot of parity in the league and Sac is a really good team," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I don't think we have anything to hang our head about today. It's disappointing because we don't lose at the Peak very often, but it's all about how we respond on Sunday."

Gallery: (3-28-2024) MTEN vs Sacramento State )3.28.24)

In doubles, Moritz Stoeger and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas got UM out to an early advantage, driving the energy at the Peak up with a quick 6-2 win over Jan Silva and Jiri Novak on court three.

The Hornet's all-conference duo of Mark Keki and Mate Voros (the defending Big Sky player of the Week), then tied the round with a speedy win of their own on court one, beating Fernando Perez and Guillermo Martin 6-1, leaving court two as the decider.

It was there that Tom Bittner and Chris Zhang picked up a huge deuce point against the serve when Sac's Adam Chodur sent a return long to tie the match 4-4 with UM taking the serve.

With all eyes on them, the Sac duo then broke Montana's serve right back, and Bittner couldn't handle a lob ball at the curtain on deuce point as the Hornets bounced back to clinch the decider 6-4 and take the 1-0 lead.

Montana entered the singles round with renewed energy after the narrow doubles loss.

Perez opened his match against Jan Silva with a 1-0 advantage early, but had his serve broke soon after leading to a 6-3, 6-4 loss on court three that extended the Hornet lead to 2-0.

On court one Bittner gave Keki, a three-time first team All-Big Sky pick, all he could handle in the premiere match of the day. The Grizzly sophomore held strong with his serve throughout the first set and blew an ace past the Hornet senior to knot it 6-6 and force a tiebreaker.

Unforced errors from Bittner gave Keki the leg up in the breaker, however, with the visitor smashing a return to win the opening set, and eventually the match 7-6 (1), 6-3. It was just Bittner's second loss of the season, with the German falling to 11-2 on the year.

Montana then got on the board with Martin bouncing back from a blown lead in the first set to beat Adam Chodur 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, on court three to make it a 3-1 Hornet lead.

Sac State then clinched the match on court two in a tense match between Voros and Wiger-Nordas that nearly went the distance to three sets.

The Grizzly sophomore tied the first set 4-4 after cutting a forehand for a well-placed volley on deuce point to gain some momentum. Voros would then break the Norwegian's serve, however, and go on to win the set 6-4.

The back-and-forth battle carried into the second set where Wiger-Nordas built leads at 5-4 and 6-5, but he couldn't hold serve and the set went to a tiebreaker.

In the breaker he then worked his way into another lead up 3-1, but again got broke with a return into the net to tie it 3-3. Wiger-Nordas retook the lead 5-4 when Voros sent a retun to the rafters, but again the lead would fall with the Hornet holding serve. With neither player willing to give up their serve, Voros finally came through with a win when Wiger-Nordas sent a return wide right, ending the match for the visitor 6-4, 7-6 (7), and clinching the match for Sac.

After winning doubles, Stoeger continued his strong play with a straight set win on court five after the match was already in hand for Sac State. The Grizzly senior powered past Novak 6-3, 6-2, for Montana's final win of the day. A loss from Zhang on court six would make it a 5-2 final score.

UP NEXT: Montana gets another opportunity for a win on their home courts when the Idaho State Bengals visit Missoula on Sunday, March 31, with action getting underway at 10:30 a.m. from the Peak.