Griz sweep Eagles 7-0 in Cheney

Thursday, April 11

Cheney, Wash.

1 PM (MT)

Montana

Eastern Washington

4/11/2024 4:11:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team took care of business under sunny skies in Cheney, Washington, on Thursday, sweeping Eastern Washington 7-0 in the Grizzlies' first outdoor match of the season.

Montana took a minute to adjust to the elements on EWU's outdoor courts, splitting its first two doubles matches but eventually claiming the opening round to take a 1-0 lead. The Griz kept the momentum going in singles, winning five of the six singles matches in straight sets.

With the win, the Griz improve to 14-7 on the season and 4-2 in conference play having all but booked its place in the Big Sky tourney at the end of the month. Eastern Washington remained winless on the season at 0-14 and 0-5 in league play.

"Hats off to Eastern, they competed hard and I'm happy with how the guys played today considering it was our first day outside this year. Overall, I thought the new doubles teams were good and we looked solid on all six courts in singles," said head coach Jason Brown.

"Getting outside will help us greatly at the conference tournament and we're excited to get back home and take on NAU."

Montana mixed up the doubles pairings in an effort to find more consistency and found mixed result against EWU.

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Guillermo Martin paired up for the first time on court two and couldn't find their rythm with the Eagles' Dillon/Dalos pair running off to a 6-0 win.

It was the opposite on court one for UM with Moritz Stoeger and Tom Bittner rolling over the Sarlvik/Waddock pair 6-1 to knot the doubles round one win each.

In the rubber match, North Alabama transfers Chris Zhang and Fernando Perez overcame a slow start down 1-0 but found their groove and broke the Thomas/Bhatti serve at the end of the match to roll to a 6-3 win, clinching the opening point for Montana.

Stoeger continued his dominant day in singles, only losing a combined three games between the two rounds with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Erik Sarlvik on court five to put UM up 2-0 in the team score. The senior's serve was the difference maker, losing just two points to Sarlvik with ball in hand.

Wiger-Nordas wasn't far behind either, beating Drew Dillon 6-2, 6-2, on court two for the second Grizzly win in short order, putting UM up 3-0.

Chris Zhang clinched the match for the Griz with his first conference win of the season, beating Brady Thomas 6-0, 6-2 on court six to put Montana up for good 4-0 with three matches still to finish.

Guillermo Martin picked up another Grizzly win on court four, grinding out a two-set victory over Arshjot Bhatti 6-3, 6-4, to put UM within one match of the sweep.

Tom Bittner capped the match with his 14^th win of the season, rebounding from a first set loss to beat Tyler Waddock 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6) in a match tiebreaker to complete the 7-0 team win.

UP NEXT: At 4-2 in league play, Montana returns to Missoula on Sunday for its final home match of the season with a big opportunity to make a splash in the conference standings as they host second place and 4-1 Northern Arizona.

The Griz and Lumberjacks are the first of a men's and women's doubleheader of Griz tennis on Sunday, April 14, with the men starting the day at 9 a.m. at the Peak Racquet Club. The Grizzly women cap the day against Idaho State at roughly 2 p.m.