Bittner leads Griz rally in win at Weber State

Sunday, March 23

Ogden, Utah

11 AM

Montana

Weber State

3/23/2025 6:49:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

As the old saying goes "cometh the hour, cometh the man," and for the Montana men's tennis team, that man was Tom Bittner.

The decorated Grizzly junior who has been battling injury all season put in his best performance of the year Sunday when his team needed him most, dominating a third set tiebreaker to clinch a dramatic, come-from-behind, 4-3 road win for the Griz at Weber State.

In a matchup between two of top three teams in the league's preseason poll, the win was UM's first in Ogden since 2012 when the Griz claimed their first regular season title.

The victory improves the Griz to 12-5 this season and 2-1 in conference play, boosting them with confidence as they prepare to play four of their final five regular season matches at home. Weber State falls to 7-10 and is now 3-2 in Big Sky action, giving UM a potentially crucial tiebreaker come tournament time.

Montana had to earn it the hard way, too, rebounding from a narrow loss in the doubles round (itself decided in a tiebreaker) to win four of the top five singles matches and claim the overall victory on the Wildcats' senior day.

None were bigger than the third set clincher from Bittner, however. After the defending unanimous first-team all-conference pick started the year hot with six-straight wins, today's win over WSU's Tristan Sarap snapped a five-match losing streak, right when the Griz needed it most.

"He was up 4-1 in the third and gave it back, had a match point up 4-5 second serve deuce point and tubed the return long, but then played a tiebreaker that probably would have beat anyone on God's green earth. Huge serves, great returns, great movement, just an absolutely flawless tiebreaker to seal it all up," said head coach Jason Brown.

"That was a huge step-up. He hasn't been able to play a lot or practice a lot battling through injury, and he's coming off a bunch of losses because of it. He stepped-up under pressure today though, and I would expect nothing less because he's a great one."

Montana started the match down 1-0 thanks to a blow-for-blow loss in the doubles round that saw the Griz get their serve broke just once on all three courts.

The freshman duo of Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson pulled out yet another win on court three to improve to 12-5 together this spring, beating WSU's Coutinho/Day pai 6-3 to tie the round 1-1 after a Grizzly loss on court one.

In the deciding doubles match on court three, Bittner and Eivind Tandberg fell to the Sarap/Zulch pair in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (5) to put the Wildcats up 1-0 in the team score.

"It was a very high level of doubles across the board. We won on three and never got broke, got broke one time on one and two, and lost in a tiebreaker. There's no shame in losing that doubles point," added Brown.

Weber State extended its lead briefly when singles started to wrap-up with Ken Minh beating Fernando Perez in straight sets on court four.

Montana seized the momentum from there, however, with McCall improving to 11-4 on the year with a 6-3, 6-3 win on court three over Jordan Coutinho and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas claiming another straight-set win on court two, 6-4, 6-3, over Connor Kruger to tie the team score 2-2.

Tandberg then put UM up 3-2 overall with a 6-4, 6-4, win on court five over Liam Day that improved the junior to 11-5 on the season in a breakout year as he continued to hold down the lower order.

After Chris Zhang narrowly fell on court six to make the team score 3-3, it was up to Bittner on court one to provide the heroics for Montana if the Griz were to escape with a win. He delivered.

The German opened his match over Sarap with a 6-3 win in the first set but was topped in the second 4-6 to set up a deciding third. With several chances for Bittner to win, Sarap hung around and forced a tiebreaker. That's when he took charge, dominating the breaker 7-1 to win the match 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (1), to put UM over the top, 4-3.

"Weber State is a hell of a team. They're having a great season, so I'm really proud of the guys for pulling that one out," said Brown.

"Road wins in the Big Sky are no joke. We witnessed home court advantage at NAU. So, we're excited to get four of our final five matches at home because the advantage is real for us too."

Montana is now in the driver's seat of reaching its goal of finishing as one of the top six teams in the league that will advance to the Big Sky Championship Tournament in Phoenix at the end of April, with four of the final five conference matches all at home.

The Griz will play their first home match since January this coming week on Saturday, March 29, when Portland State visits Missoula. UM then caps the upcoming weekend at the Peak Racquet Club against Idaho, who currently sits on top of the Big Sky table at 8-5 overall and 2-0 in league play, on Sunday, with both matches starting at 10:30 a.m.