Grizzly freshmen shine at Bedford Cup

Friday, September 27

USAF Academy, Colo.

All Day

Montana

Bedford Cup

9/29/2024 8:17:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Complete Draws/Results

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team opened its fall tournament season at Air Force's Bedford Cup in the Mountains over the weekend in Colorado Springs. Freshman Duncan McCall highlighted the Grizzlies' weekend with a championship win in the Raptor singles draw in his first-ever collegiate tourney.

McCall also partnered with fellow freshman Johnny Wilkinson to go 3-1 in doubles and advance to the final of the doubles consolation draw where they met fellow Grizzlies Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Eivind Tandberg.

One of the premiere events on the fall calendar, the Bedford Cup gave Montana reps against some of the region's top programs in the 12-team draw, plus a sneak peek at this year's Big Sky opponents with players from Idaho, Montana State, Northern Arizona, and Weber State all in attendance.

To earn his first title, McCall ground-out three-straight wins in three sets each to win the Raptor Draw, beating players from New Mexico State, the University of Denver, and Weber State to advance to the final where he beat BYU's Tygen Goldhammer in a walkover to finish 4-0.

In doubles, he and Wilkinson opened the tournament with a 6-2 win over Weber State's Liam/Coutinho in the round of 32 before falling 4-6 to BYU's Schreiner/Wells pair in the round of 16 to send them to the north consolation draw.

There they picked up another win over the Deaton/Moore pair from Air Force and beat NAU's Katsuda/Aginsky 7-5 to advance to the final where the match against Wiger-Nordas and Tandberg went unplayed.

Wiger-Nordas and Tandberg beat a pair of teams from New Mexico State in the north consolation draw to reach the final.

"It was a good weekend, but really it was just great getting guys plenty of playing time and back into competitive tennis. Duncan McCall had a great weekend, effectively going 8-1 across the board, so that was great to see," said head coach Jason Brown.

"We've still got a lot of work to do but I'm excited about this group. I think we can do some special things, but we have to keep getting better."

Montana returns to action this week when the Griz travel south on I-15 for the Bengal Invitational at Idaho State Oct. 4-6 before traveling to Las Vegas for the ITA Mountain Regional Oct. 17-22.

Montana Results
Bedford Cup in the Mountains hosted by the Air Force Academy
September 27-29, 2024

Singles
Raptor Draw
Rd 16
Duncan McCall vs Lance Urlaub, New Mexico St.                            3-6, 6-3, 6-4 W
Moritz Lesjak vs Minh Tuan Dinh Viet, Weber St.                                 6-3, ret. W
QF
Duncan McCall vs Mark Neyelov, Denver                                                6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 6-4 W
Moritz Lesjak vs Samuel Rovai, Denver                                                      6-4, 4-6, 3-6 L
SF
Duncan McCall vs Liam Day, Weber St.                                                    6-2, 5-7, 6-3 W
F
Duncan McCall vs Tygen Goldhammer, BYU                                         Walkover W
Moritz Lesjak vs Dmitry Bezborodov, Montana St.                            1-6, 6-7 (3) L

Eagle Draw
Rd 32
Dragos Bucurescu vs. Luke Wolf, Air Force                                            5-7, 4-6 L
Johnny Wilkinson vs Hardy Owen, BYU                                                      2-6, 5-7 L
Jake Watkins vs Tyler Leaird, Air Force                                                       5-7, 4-6 L

Consolation
Dragos Bucuresu vs Luca Fe D'ostiani, New Mexico St.               2-6, 6-7 (4) L
Jake Watkins vs Matias Rojas, New Mexico St.                                     3-6, 2-6 L
Johnny Wilkinson vs Dmitri Goubin, Utah St.                                         6-4, 2-6, (9-11) L
Dragos Bucurescu vs Harrison Janes, Montana St.                           7-6 (5), 6-4 W

Lightning Draw
Rd 16
Fernando Perez Rodenas vs Adam Chodur, BYU                                2-6, 2-6 L
Chris Zhang vs Redd Owen, BYU                                                                    3-6, 3-6 L

Consolation
Fernando Perez Rodenas vs Philip Deaton, Air Force                      4-6, 6-2, (3-10) L
Chris Zhang vs Rikuto Yamaguchi, Denver                                              4-6, 7-5, (4-10) L
Fernando Perez Rodenas vs Tristan Sarap, Weber St.                     6-1, Retired W

Falcon Draw
Rd 16
Eivind Tandberg vs Chetanna Amadike, Idaho                                      3-6, 7-5, 6-3 W
QF
Eivind Tandberg vs Alec Fritzinger, Air Force                                          2-6, 4-6 L
Consolation
Eivind Tandberg vs Otto Scheiner, BYU                                                      5-7, 6-4 (6-10) L

Extra Sanctioned Matches
Chris Zhang vs Matthew Staton, Air Force                                               2-6, 7-6 (5), (10-6) W
Jake Watkins vs Relja Eskic, Denver                                                             3-6, 3-6 L
Moritz Lesjak vs Adam Duda, Boise St.                                                                        3-6, 1-6 L
Johnny Wilkinson vs Kyle Garner, Air Force                                             6-4, 6-2 W
Jake Watkins vs Eric William Wang, Idaho                                               4-6, 4-6 L
Eivind Tandberg vs Noe De Col , Idaho                                                        5-7, 4-6 L
Dragos Bucurecu vs Dmitri Goubin, Utah St.                                         2-6, 7-6 (4), (10-6) W

Doubles
Rd 32
Fernando Perez Rodenas/Chris Zhang vs Takumi Katsuda/Semen Aginskiy, NAU           5-7 L
Johnny Wilkinson/Duncan McCall vs Liam Day/Jordan Coutinho, Weber St.                       6-2 W
Eivind Tandberg/Baltazar Wiger-Nordas vs Taiyo Kurata/Dylan Jaen, Boise St                   6-4 W
Moritz Lesjak/Dragos Bucurescu vs Jakub Prachar/Jakub Volesky, NAU                                0-6 L

Rd 16
Eivind Tandberg/Baltazar Wiger-Nordas vs William Zulch/Tristan Sarap, Weber St.      2-6 L
Johnny Wilkinson/Duncan McCall vs Otto Scheiner/TJ Wells, BYU                                             4-6 L

Consolation
Fernando Perez Rodenas/Chris Zhang vs Matthew Staton/Alec Fritzinger, Air Force     6-4 W
Fernando Perez Rodenas/Chris Zhang vs Thomas Navarro/Dusan Rsovac, UNLV          3-6 L
Moritz Lesjak/Dragos Bucurescu vs Francisco Gay/Sebastian Medica, Idaho                    6-1 W
Moritz Lesjak/Dragos Bucurescu vs Redd Owen/Adam Chodur, BYU                                       0-6 L
Moritz Lesjak/Dragos Bucurescu vs Samuel Rovai/Theo Coats, Denver                                 7-6 (6) W

Johnny Wilkinson/Duncan McCall vs Takumi Katsuda/Semen Aginskiy, NAU                     7-5 W
Eivind Tandberg/Baltazar Wiger-Nordas vs Lance Urlaub/Holland Snell, NMSU               7-5 W