Griz beat Warriors to open Gem State road trip

Friday, March 8

Lewiston, Idaho

1 PM (MT)

Montana

Lewis-Clark State

Dragos Bucurescu of The Montana Grizzlies hits the ball during a match against the Whitman Blues on Feb. 10, 2024 at the PEAK Racquet Club in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Coral Scoles-Coburn/University of Montana

3/8/2024 4:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

In a tune-up ahead Sunday's Big Sky Conference opener at Idaho, the Montana men's tennis team opened its weekend road trip with a 5-2 win over Lewis-Clark State in Lewiston on Friday.

Nursing several players back to health before the league match against the Vandals, Montana got the whole roster some reps in a sweep of the doubles round, wins in four of five singles matches, and one loss by retirement.

"It was good to get readjusted to playing at this altitude after being up in Denver last week honestly, and all eight of the guys who traveled today got to play, which was nice to see. It was just nice to get the win today and now we can focus on leaving the Palouse 2-0. That's the important thing," said head coach Jason Brown.

With the win, the Griz improved to 8-3, while LCSC fell to 7-5.

Junior Chris Zhang and sophomore Tom Bittner continued their strong seasons, pairing up to take a 6-3 win on court two doubles and singles wins in straight sets.

Perez and Guillermo Martin then battled through to a 7-5 win on court one doubles to clinch the opening point for the Griz, while Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Moritz Stoeger capped the round with a 7-5 win of their own on court three.

In singles, Zhang was dominant against Austin Swing, winning 6-1, 6-2, to put UM up 2-0 in the team score over the Warriors. Now at 7-1 on the season, the New Zealander has been one of Montana's top performers this year with the second-most wins on the team.

Wiger-Nordas was equally as dominant, shutting-out Matus Rusnak in the second set on court one 6-3, 6-0 to make it a 3-0 team lead for the Griz.

Fernando Perez was able to pitch a shut-out in his first set on court two before retiring with a niggling injury in the second up 6-0, 2-3 over Itaru Kikuchi to make it 3-1 in favor of UM.

Bittner then kept his winning streak alive by clinching the win for Montana on court three, beating Rafael Bonnet in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, to put the Griz up for good at 4-1. The sophomore remained undefeated this season, now a 8-0 in singles on the year.

Josh Watkins then suffered his second-straight loss, falling to Daniel Tevez 6-3, 6-2, for LCSC's second win of the day, cutting into UM's lead a 4-2.

Newcomer Dragos Bucurescu then bounced back after losing his first set to pick up Montana's fifth win in a third set superbreaker, beating Nell Rollin 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6) on court five.

Montana now gets one more day of rest before taking on Idaho in a crucial conference match inside the Kibbie Dome in Moscow on Sunday, with opening serves starting at 11 a.m. Links to a live ESPN+ stream of the Idaho match can be found at GoGriz.com.