Griz open Big Sky tourney against familiar Bengals

It's second season time for the Montana men's tennis team as the Grizzlies travel to Arizona as the No. 6 seed in the Big Sky Conference championship tournament, set for April 25-27 at the Phoenix Tennis Center.

The Griz enter the postseason at 14-9 this year and 4-4 in league play but are licking their wounds after falling to 4-3 in a heartbreaking loss at Montana State in the final match of the regular season.

Montana has a big opportunity to rebound in Phoenix, however, with a favorable matchup against No. 3 Idaho State (13-9, 5-3 BSC) in the first round. One of those three conference losses came at the hands of the Grizzlies in Missoula in early April, giving UM the advantage in the head-to head.

The Griz and Bengals get underway bright and early Thursday morning before the heat of the desert day sets in, with action starting at 9 a.m. (MT)/8 a.m. (PT) on April 25. Links to live scoring of the tournament can be found on the schedule page at GoGriz.com/MTEN.

Should the Griz advance, they'll get another crack at the No. 1 seed Northern Arizona Lumberjacks, who the Griz played tight in a 5-2 loss in Missoula on April 14.

With the league as evenly matched as it has been in decades, Montana is taking the courts in Phoenix full of optimism.

"We're ready and we know what to expect. ISU is a great team, they really are. I think that was one of our best wins of the season against those guys, so we know it's going to take a very similar effort to get this first win and then make some waves down here," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I also think that no one wants to play us. I think teams know how dangerous we are, and after all our Big Sky matches this year I don't think anyone walked away saying they hope they get us in the tournament."

LAST MEETING: The Grizzlies pulled off one of the most improbable comebacks possible in doubles and rode the wave of momentum through the singles round to beat Idaho State 5-2 in Missoula on Easter Sunday.

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.

The Griz then 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.

More good news for Montana: The Griz have been in this situation before with Idaho State at the tournament, and more often than not come out smiling with a 3-2 all time postseason record against the Bengals.

The last postseason meeting between the two was in 2022 when Montana beat Idaho State 4-1 in the quarterfinal round. In fact, you have to go back to 2005 to find the last time the Bengals beat UM in the Big Sky tourney.

ACCOLDADES: Montana saw four players earn All-Big Sky accolades on the eve of the conference tournament, while ISU had seven selections.

UM sophomore Tom Bittner was a unanimous first team selection with a 16-2 record. Idaho State, meanwhile, had one first team pick in Valentino De Pellegrin, who Bittner beat in straight sets in the regular season.

Guillermo Martin won second team all-conference honors at 6-2 this year and beat fellow second-teamer Andreas Kramer of IUS in straight sets 6-4, 6-5, in the regular season matchup.

Montana's other two all-conference picks this season were Stoeger and Wiger-Nordas in doubles. See above for their results against ISU.

TOURNEY NOTES: Montana has made 52 all-time Big Sky tournament appearances with a tourney record of 21-31, only missing the tourney once since 1991.

The Griz have made six championship appearances and 17 semifinal appearances, with the last in 2022. The Griz won the Big Sky tourney and captured the league's auto bid to the NCAA tourney one time in 2014.

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Players Mentioned

Tom Bittner

Guillermo Martin

Moritz Stoeger

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas

University of Montana Athletics