Jacks fend-off Griz 5-2 in Missoula

Sunday, April 14

Missoula, Mont.

9 AM

Montana

Northern Arizona

4/14/2024 4:05:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

A furious comeback attempt from the Montana men's tennis team fell just short against Big Sky preseason favorite Northern Arizona at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula on Sunday.

In a four-hour marathon of a conference dual that saw two doubles matches go to a tiebreaker and three singles matches go three sets with another tiebreaker thrown in, the No. 2 Lumberjacks outlasted the Griz in the final two matches of the day to win 5-2.

Montana had its chances at a win with early leads on three courts, but NAU stepped up when it counted. The Griz were two games shy of a three-set win on court two, and NAU caught fire on court six, winning nine of the last 10 games for a pair of victories that could have clinched it for the Griz, among other opportunities.

With one match left in the regular season but a ticket punched to the Big Sky championship tourney, Montana falls to 14-8 overall and 4-3 in conference play. The loss was just Montana's second at home this season, with both against the top two teams in the league.

Northern Arizona kept its league title hopes alive with the win, improving to 15-6 overall and 6-1 in conference play after dispatching Montana State 5-2 in Bozeman on Saturday.

"I felt like we left a lot of chances on the board, but no shame in losing to a team that's, probably on paper and on the court today, a little bit better than us. Hats off to NAU. They're super tough and have been tearing up the Big Sky for a reason. It was disappointing in a couple of spots that we did have a chance but, I think now the guys know it's well within reach," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I think we figured out a few things to close the gap. We hate losing matches at the Peak, it doesn't happen too often. We've only had two though, and they were to the top two teams and both hyper competitive. Hopefully we'll get a crack at one or both in Phoenix."

Montana started the day strong in doubles, up 3-1 on courts two and three in the early going. NAU got the early lead in the round, however, beating but UM's German duo of Moritz Stoeger and Tom Bittner struggling to get any traction on court one, and eventually falling 6-1.

On court three Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Chris Zhang, who had been beaten Thursday in their first match together at EWU, got break to go up 3-1, but then NAU's De Boes/Galus pair broke them right back to cut the lead to 3-2 before UM eventually built a 5-3 lead.

With the Grizzly pair up 40-0 with match point, NAU started their comeback, winning three straight games to break UM's serve, prevent the win, and cut the lead to 5-4. With serve, the Jacks then tied it 5-5 before the Griz held to take a 6-5 lead. They couldn't break the NAU serve, however, as the set went to a tiebreaker.

In the extra frame De Boes and Galus took control, rolling to a 7-3 win to clinch the doubles point 7-6 (3) for the visitors and put them up 1-0 in the team score.

In singles, NAU extended the team lead with a straight set win on court three when Maikel De Boes beat Fernando Perez 6-4, 6-3, to put the Lumberjacks up 2-0.

On court two, Wiger-Nordas rebounded from a first set loss to beat Big Sky Player of the Week Dani Torres 6-3 in the second. In the deciding set, the Grizzly sophomore went serve-for-serve with Torres, but eventually got broke to fall 4-6, 6-3, 5-7 and put NAU up 3-0

A comeback was brewing on court one, however, when Bittner improved to 15-2 and 6-1 in conference play this season and all but solidified first team all-conference honors with a gritty win over NAU senior Dominik Buzonics.

In a back-and-forth match, the UM sophomore took the first set in a tiebreaker, using his big serve to his advantage in the extra frame to win the set 7-6 (3). He then kept the foot on the pedal to go up 5-2 in the second set with a big hold on deuce point. Buzonics took the momentum back, however, breaking Bittner's serve and eventually tying the set 5-5. Bittner's defense then came up big, breaking his opponents serve to win 7-5 and cut NAU's lead to 3-1.

Guillermo Martin got another point back for the Griz on court four after that. On senior day, the Spaniard recovered from a second set loss to win the final match of his career inside the Peak.

After winning his first set 6-4, he broke Pitor Galus' serve to make it 5-5 in the second before eventually losing 5-7. In the third set Galus broke his serve to take a 2-1 lead, but Martin broke right back and took a 3-2 lead and eventually chased down a forehand that was returned to the net to win the match 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, and make it a 3-2 team score.

Martin is now riding a seven-match win streak and is 6-1 in conference play and also a strong contender for all-conference honors.

Once Martin won, fellow senior Moritz Stoeger could smell upset in the air and rebounded from a first set 2-6 loss to win the second over Maciej Ziomber 7-5. The visitor caught the momentum back though, winning the third set 6-3.

Meanwhile on court six, NAU clinched the team win when Chris Zhang saw a 4-2 lead in the first set only to see his opponent go on a heater and win nine of his 10 games to win 6-4, 6-1, and give NAU its 4^th win.

UP NEXT: The third place Griz will cap the regular season against the sixth place Bobcats next week in Bozeman, set for Sunday, April 21, at 11 a.m.

With added emphasis always being placed on the annual Brawl of the Wild dual, the Griz will take the positives and look for a rivalry win.

"We said, leave this leave this one here. We've got a couple small things to shore up, both mentally and strategically, and I think we need to execute a little better and more important points and back ourselves. Sometimes against teams at a lower level, you can kind of hope that they will go away but the good teams step up, and we need to be the team stepping up," added Brown.

"We're going to try to take the positives and get ready for the Bobcats in Bozeman on Sunday."