Griz fall to NAU in Flagstaff

Sunday, March 16

Flagstaff, Ariz.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Northern Arizona

The Montana Grizzlies go against the North Dakota Hawks on Jan. 25, 2025, at the PEAK Racquet Club, in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

3/16/2025 5:34:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team gave Northern Arizona all it could handle in doubles and got off to a fast start in singles, but at the end of the day the 7,000 feet of elevation in Flagstaff proved to be the difference as the Lumberjacks beat the Griz 7-0 to improve to 71-5 at home over the last decade.

In a battle between No. 1 and No. 2 in the Big Sky preseason poll, it was the 'Jacks who defended their spot atop the ranking win a narrow win in the deciding doubles match and four straight-set wins in singles, despite the Griz holding an early lead on each court.

The loss drops UM to 11-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play after beating Sacramento State in California last week. Northern Arizona improves to 9-6 overall and stays perfect at 4-0 in league play after back-to-back home shutouts over Weber State and UM on consecutive days.

"I think trying to beat NAU at tennis in Flagstaff is one of the toughest tasks in college sports. They are not going to lose any matches at home, I can promise you that. They're really good," said head coach Jason Brown.

"I thought our guys did all the right things to win. I think we let them off the hook in doubles. We could've won all three spots in my mind, but things just bounced the wrong way for us. Then they got a little hot and used that momentum in singles. There were only a few spots where we had no answers."

Montana started the match on top when Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg picked up a 6-3 win on court two doubles to put the Griz in the driver's seat of the opening round. But a loss for the Griz on court one placed left the opening point hanging on the outcome of court three, where UM freshmen Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson held an early 4-3 lead.

The Lumberjacks' Agnskyy/Katsuda pair would break the Grizzly serve, however, giving them a 5-4 lead and eventually a 6-4 win to seal the doubles point and take a 1-0 team lead heading into singles.

In singles, Montana won a minimum of four first-set games on four of the six courts, but the Lumberjacks held their ground, taking wins in all six sets to start the round.

Junior Tom Bittner and senior Fernando Perez battled back on courts one and four, respectively, winning their second sets and forcing a deciding third. By that time though the 'Jacks had done enough to clinch the win on the remaining four courts, leaving Bittner and Perez to fall in a superbreaker.

Montana was also without a win on court two, where Friday's clincher in UM's win over Grand Canyon Baltazar Wiger-Nordas was forced to retired injured.

The Griz now prepare for another Big Sky road trip next weekend when UM heads south on I-15 to take on Utah State in Logan and Weber State in Ogden before playing four of their last five matches of the regular season in Missoula.