Griz grind out a three-match sweep in Spokane

Saturday, February 1

Spokane, Wash.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Whitworth

Photo by: Coral Scoles-Coburn/University of Montana

2/2/2025 5:54:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score 3

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team shuffled the lineups and got plenty of reps for everyone on the roster while sweeping a weekend trip to Spokane with three wins in three duals on Saturday and Sunday.

The Griz rolled over the D-III Whitworth Pirates in a Saturday doubleheader, winning both matches 6-1. They capped the trip with a gritty 4-3 nonconference win at Eastern Washington in Cheney.

With the sweep, Montana improves to 4-0 on the early season. Whitworth dropped to 0-3 after the two losses and EWU stayed winless at 0-6.

Montana rested last year's unanimous all-conference pick Tom Bittner over the weekend and limited the work for others at the top of the lineup in favor of match experience for reserves and lower-order players.

After nearly eight hours on the court on Saturday at Whitworth, the Griz had to dig deep to find the win in Cheney. Montana came out firing in the doubles round, but found itself in a battle with four of the six singles matches going to a third set with three sets settled in tiebreakers.

"Well done by EWU. Those guys were swinging out of their shoes. They had nothing to lose, so hats-off to them. That was the best match I've seen them play in the last five years. We kind of made it difficult on ourselves, but we'll take some confidence in the road win," said head coach Jason Brown.

"Winning on the road when you don't have your best stuff, especially against a conference opponent, is hard to do. So, we get to put one in the win column, and we're not upset about it, but we've still got a lot of work to do to get better."

The Griz opened the weekend with 6-1 win in the first doubleheader match at Scotford Tennis Center. Montana rolled to three quick wins in the doubles round, not giving up more than two games on any court.

UM then picked up all five of its singles wins in straight sets, with freshmen Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson moving up to lines one and two, last week's hero against UND Chris Zhang slotting in on court three, and Eivind Tandberg sliding up from six to four.

Jake Watkins was the only Grizzly to stumble in the match, falling in a narrow battle with Matt Froslan on court five 5-7, 4-6. Dragos Bucurescu capped the win with a 6-0, 6-3 win on court six to make it a 6-1 final team score.

In the second match of the day Montana stubbed its toe in the doubles round when Watkins and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas fell 7-6(6) in a tiebreaker to clinch the point for the Pirates on their home court.

The Griz rebounded in singles, however, taking wins on all six courts with all but one coming in straight sets for another 6-1 team victory.

After as short turnaround time on Sunday morning, Montana traveled to Cheney where a game Eastern Washington was waiting at the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse. The Grizzlies started strong with a sweep of the doubles round for an early 1-0 lead.

EWU tied the match soon after in singles, however, when Drew Dillon bounced back from a first set loss to beat Fernando Perez 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, to make the team score 1-1. McCall then got the Griz back on top with a three-set win of his own on court two, beating Tyler Dalos 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2.

Again, the Eagles would answer with another three set victory, this time on court one where Wiger-Nordas fought his way back in a second set win, but lost a close third set to drop the match 2-6, 6-4, 5-7, and again tie the team score 2-2.

Zhang and Tandberg then split their matches on courts four and five, respectively, to make it a 3-3 team score, with Zhang beating Caden Kammerer in three sets with two tiebreakers 7-6(2), 2-6, 7-6(2) and Tandberg falling to Arshjot Bhatti 6-4, 6-3.

Freshman Moritz Lesjak then earned the first clinching victory of his career on court six, cruising past Brady Thomas 6-1, 6-0, to seal the team win for the Griz.

Montana now prepares to ramp up the level of competition next week, traveling to Colorado Springs and the U.S. Air Force Academy. The Griz take on the host Falcons on Saturday, Feb. 8, and cap the trip against Denver's Metro State in a neutral site dual at the Academy on Feb. 9.