Griz start strong, fall to Utah State 5-2

Friday, March 21

Logan, Utah

Noon

Montana

Utah State

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Moritz Stoeger celebrate after a play against the Western Washington Eagles at PEAK Racquet Club on February 1, 2024, in Missoula, Montana.

Photo by: Ella Palulis/University of Montana

3/21/2025 4:19:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

Without the services of the team's top player and a shuffled lineup, the Montana men's tennis squad gave the Mountain West's Utah State Aggies all they could handle on their home courts in a 5-2 loss in Logan on Friday to open a two-match tour of the Beehive State.

The Griz pulled out a win in the doubles round to take a 1-0 team lead and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas (who was filling in for Grizzly No. 1 Tom Bittner) earned a straight set win on line one singles to put UM within spitting distance of an upset.

The depth of the Aggies lineup would be too much for the Griz to handle, however, as the home team took wins on the remaining five singles courts to improve to 10-6 on the season.

The Griz, meanwhile, fall to 11-5 on the year, but will carry positives from the loss into Sunday's Big Sky Conference showdown at Weber State. Montana is also expected to have Bittner, the No. 10-ranked player in the Mountain Region, back in the lineup against the Wildcats.

"It was a great effort in doubles and "Balty" (Wiger-Nordas) stepping up in the one hole and beating one of the top Mountain West players was great as well. It was also good getting some reps for guys who haven't played as much lately," said head coach Jason Brown.

"Hats off to Utah State. They're well coached and there is a reason they've had a lot of success here. But we were using this match as prep for Weber State, and I think we accomplished that today."

Montana started the match hot, as Wiger-Nordas and team captain Fernando Perez bolted to a 6-3 win on doubles court one over USU's Martirosian/Nobel pair. The Aggies would tie the round soon after, however, with the Alkotop/Goubin pair beting Eivind Tandberg and Chris Zhang 6-2 on court two.

In the rubber match on court three, Montana's freshman duo of Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson continued their impressive form as a partnership, improving to 11-5 together this season with a 7-6 (5) tiebreaker win over USU's Fenollar/Pasanen pair to put the Griz up 1-0 in the team score.

In singles, Tandberg was the first to finish on court four, coming out on the wrong end of a quick 6-1, 6-2 loss to Roman Venger that knotted the team score 1-1 early in the round.

Bumping-up to court one for just the fourth time this season, Wiger-Nordas picked up where he left off in doubles, sprinting to a 6-3 win in his first set over Sergi Mico Fellonar then hanging on for a tiebreaker win in the second, 7-6 (3) that gave UM its second team point and a 2-1 lead.

Perez also played a strong first set, up a break early, but falling narrowly in the end 5-7. By then the momentum had shifted for the home team, however, with the UM senior falling 6-1 in the second set and the Aggies rattling-off straight set wins on the remaining four courts.

Montana now turns its attention to Weber State (which also lost to the 4-1 on Thursday) in an important conference dual that features two of the top three teams in the preseason poll. Action from Ogden gets underway on Sunday at 11 a.m.