Dramatic comeback leads to a big win for Griz netters

Sunday, March 31

Missoula, Mont.

10:30 AM

Montana

Idaho State

Dramatic comeback leads to a big win for Griz netters

3/31/2024 5:12:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

On Easter Sunday, the Montana men's tennis team pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

Staring defeat square in the face, the Grizzlies staged an incredible comeback in doubles and rode the momentum through singles to take a crucial 5-2 Big Sky Conference win over the third place Idaho State Bengals in Missoula.

Trailing 1-5 on the deciding doubles court with match point coming at 15-40, Moritz Stoeger and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas flipped the script and rattled off six straight games to mount a comeback for the ages and take a 6-5 lead. They then held on to clinch the doubles point for UM in a tiebreaker, sending the crowd at the Peak Racquet Club into a frenzy and setting the Griz up for success in singles.

With momentum in hand Montana won three of the top four singles matches in dramatic fashion to clinch the team victory over the Bengals at 4-1, eventually capping the match with a 5-2 win.

Montana improved to 12-7 and 2-2 in conference play with the win, while Idaho State moves to 11-8 and 3-3 in league action, with wins over Idaho, Montana State, and Portland State in hand.

With only four regular season duals remaining and just the top six teams in the league advancing to the Big Sky tournament, today's win was a big one for the seventh-place Grizzlies' postseason hopes.

"That was one of the gutsiest performances I've ever seen," said head coach Jason Brown of the doubles rebound.

"Coming back from 5-1, triple match point down… that's one you tell your grandkids about. You just never see that in doubles. Holding serve just happens way too often, so great job by those guys.

"I don't want to be overly dramatic but that was kind of a must win situation for us. If that goes the other direction, we put ourselves in a real tight spot to make the conference tournament. I think our best tennis is still ahead of us though, so we're going to find that, hopefully keep getting wins, and finish the season strong."

Montana opened the match by splitting the first two doubles matches. Guillermo Martin and Fernando Perez dropped their court one match 3-6 to ISU's Pellegrin/Skenka pair to take the early advantage.

UM then leveled the score with a win on court three, with Tom Bittner and Chris Zhang held serve at 4-3 and went on to beat ISU's Cankus/Fujita pair 6-3. That's when all the eyeballs at the Peak focused on court two.

Stoeger and Wiger-Nordas started the match with a win in the first game to go up 1-0 over ISU's Kramer/Robbertse pair. Then it all went south, with the Grizzly duo losing five-straight games to go down 1-5.

In what could have been the final game, UM was facing match point down 40-15 when the comeback started bit by bit.

The Grizzly pair got the serve back and held to make it 3-5, then broke ISU's serve on an overruled out call to make it 4-5. That's when the Griz got aggressive, attacking the net and firing volley after volley back at the Bengal pair and finding some well-placed winners.

UM eventually took the lead when Wiger-Nordas sent a big return back off an ISU second serve to take a 6-5 lead. It wouldn't last long though, as ISU broke UM's serve with Stoeger missing wide right on game point to tie it 6-6 and force a tiebreaker.

The Griz kept their foot on the gas in the breaker with more aggressive net play, eventually going on to win the deciding point 7-6 (2) to put UM up 1-0 in the team score and capping one of the most memorable doubles points ever played at the Peak.

"The big thing that changed was the shift in mindset from us trying to not lose to playing to win, and that's what we ended up doing. We hit a ton of return winners, our returns improved, we started making serves, and we were more confident at the net. I think that was the key to success," said Stoeger.

"I think one of our biggest strengths is our net game for sure. If we're able to implement that a lot of doubles teams will struggle against us. We were struggling in the beginning, but we started feeling it and became more confident. It was great."

Montana extended the lead in short order when singles round got underway, with Bittner, a sophomore, blowing past the defending Big Sky Freshman of the Year Valentino De Pellegrin on court one in straight sets.

Leaning into his powerful forehand, Bittner dominated the first set, sweeping De Pellegrin 6-0, before closing out the second 6-4 to put the Griz up 2-0 in the team score and improve his personal singles record to 12-2 on the season.

"I don't think Tom had as good a freshman season as he probably would have hoped for, and that kid was freshman of the year last year. Tom just absolutely took care of business. Pretty amazing performance from him," said Brown.

On court four Martin extended the Griz lead again with a second straight-set win. After cruising in the first, the Spaniard turned up the defense late in the second set with multiple eye-catching returns, eventually leading to a 5-5 tie. After smashing a forehand to go up 6-5, he charged the net on deuce point and threw down another forehand winner to win the set 7-5 and put the Griz up 3-0.

ISU then got on the board on court three when Perez fell just short in a three-set comeback, going down to Andreas Kramer 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. That made the team score 3-1, and with three courts still to finish it was anyone's ballgame.

Wiger-Nordas then came up with more come-from-behind heroics for the Griz on court two to clinch the win.

The UM sophomore and ISU's Victor Sklenka traded blows throughout the first set, each holding serve until the visitor forced a tiebreaker at 6-6. Wiger-Nordas would smash an overhand lob down to tie the breaker 4-4, but Sklenka would go on to win the set 7-6 (4), turning the pressure up on the Grizzlies.

The Norwegian would refuse to lose once again, however, bouncing back to win the second set 6-4 then meeting a tweener at the net to slap it down to take a 4-3 lead in the third. The two then broke each other's serves to add to the drama, leaving the Grizzly up 5-4 serving for the match.

On deuce point, Sklenka returned a serve into the net, Wiger-Nordas would take the win, and the Griz would clinch the match.

Stoeger finished the scoring for the Griz on court five, remaining undefeated on the weekend with a 6-4, 6-4, win over defending Big Sky Player of the Week Hiroki Fujita.

Montana returns to action at the Peak Racquet Club on Saturday, April 6, with another key conference battle, this time against Weber State. Start time is set for 10:30 a.m., and admission is free.