Bobcats mount comeback to beat Griz in Bozeman

Sunday, April 21

Bozeman, Mont.

11 AM

Montana

Montana State

4/21/2024 5:32:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team dropped a back-and-forth brawl to Montana State in Bozeman on Sunday, building an early lead but seeing the Bobcats win the four matches at the bottom of the lineup to beat the Griz 4-3 in a heartbreaker at MSU's Anderson Tennis Center.

Tied 3-3 late in the dual, UM junior Chris Zhang battled through not one, but two tiebreakers, fending-off seven match points in a marathon second set but eventually falling in the deciding set as the Bobcats edged out the five-plus hour, come-from-behind win.

With the loss, Montana (14-9, 4-4 BSC) now heads to the Big Sky championship as the No. 6 seed. Montana State (9-11, BSC) leapfrogs UM to grab the No. 5 seed at the conference tournament, which gets underway on Thursday, April 25 in Phoenix.

Montana built a 3-1 lead in the match with a win in the doubles round and top of the lineup singles wins on courts one and two. Montana State bounced back, however, winning the bottom four matches in the lineup in the narrowest of margins, with three extending to a third set.

"Kudos to Montana State. They were in a horrible spot and found a way to get out of it, so hats off to them. I'm not disappointed in the way we played for the most part, we had every chance to win, but they played really well at the bottom of the lineup," said head coach Jason Brown.

"Congrats to Tom Bittner for a great season. I also think our doubles was great. We found some pairs up top that were outstanding. We just didn't have enough to get over the line today."

Montana started the match with a 1-0 team lead thanks to a win in the doubles round that saw the Grizzlies holding leads on all three courts when point was clinched.

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Chris Zhang were the first to get on the board with a convincing 6-3 win over MSU's Ciobotaru/Jayathilake pair to put the momentum on the Grizzly bench.

The Grizzly Spaniard duo of Guillermo Martin and Fernando Perez improved to 7-4 together on the season with the clinching win on court two, beating MSU's Hermassi/Stewart pair 6-4 to seal the opening point for Montana.

In singles, Wiger-Nordas, a sophomore who split time between court one and two this season, improved to 5-3 in conference play and hit the .500 mark at 9-9 overall on the year. Just like he did in doubles, the Norwegian beat Dario Ciobotaru in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 to put UM up 2-0 with the first finish.

The Bobcats then got on the board with a win on court four. Rayen Hermassi used a second set tiebreaker to get passed Guillermo Martin 6-2, 7-6 (3) to cut Montana's lead in half at 2-1.

Bittner then put UM back in the win column with his fifth win in six matches, rolling to a first set victory before winning the second in a nailbiter of a tiebreaker to beat Max Relic 6-2, 7-6 (5). The win on court one put Montana up 3-1 with three more courts to finish, and it looked like the Grizzlies were in the driver's seat.

But MSU started their comeback on court four where Perez held a first set lead before the wheels came off, falling to Andras Necz in three sets 6-2, 2-6, 3-6, to cut into the Grizzly lead again at 3-2.

Meanwhile match five was underway and again it appeared as though the Griz were going to run away a win when Stoeger shut out Andre Stewart 6-0 in the first set. Stewart captured the momentum at the Bobcat Anderson Tennis Center, however, rebounding for a 6-3 win in the second, and in the third he held off Stoeger's comeback attempt to take a 6-4 win, tying the match 3-3 with one court remaining.

With the pressure on, Zhang did all he could on court six, forcing two tiebreakers in in both the fist and second set. After losing the first set, the Grizzly junior fought off an incredible seven match points in a marathon second set tiebreaker that took five extra points to win 7-6 (10).

In the third and deciding set, Zhang broke Jayathilake's serve to take a 5-3 lead and took the serve to win. He would have his serve broken right back, however, and Zhang would go on to fall in a heartbreaker 6-7 (6), 7-6 (10), 5-7, to give the Bobcats the home win.

UP NEXT: Montana heads to Phoenix as the No. 6 seed but will get a favorable draw in the first round, getting a rematch with the No. 3 seed Idaho State Bengals on Thursday, April 25, at 8 a.m. Montana beat Idaho State 5-2 back on March 31 in Missoula in their only other dual of the season.

Should UM beat ISU, they'll advance as the lowest remaining seed in the tournament to take on No. 1 Northern Arizona in the semifinal, a team that narrowly beat the Griz 5-2 last week in Missoula.