Griz return home for pair of key league matches

After a long and winding two months on the road the Montana men's tennis team returns home for the first time since January this weekend for a pair of Big Sky Conference duals at the Peak Racquet Club.

With the nonconference portion of the schedule in the rearview mirror and riding high with a 12-5 record, the Griz have reached the business end of the season with five-straight Big Sky matches on deck in the leadup to the league's championship tournament in late April.

Luckily for Montana four of those five will be played in at home, where the Griz have been virtually untouchable under head coach Jason Brown at 40-7 in Missoula in his eight seasons at the helm.

The Grizzlies open the weekend taking on Portland State (4-9, 0-4 BSC) on Saturday before capping the weekend Sunday with a big one against Idaho (8-5, 3-0 BSC), which has beaten UM in five of the last six meetings and not lost a conference dual to the Griz since 2021.

Both matches are slated to get underway at 10:30 a.m. at the Peak, south of Missoula on Blue Mountain Road. Admission is free and open to the public. Links to live scoring can be found on the team's schedule page at GoGriz.com.

Montana enters the homestand with a boatload of momentum after beating Weber State 4-3 in a tiebreaker in Ogden on Sunday – the Grizzlies' first road win over the Wildcats since 2012. The victory improved UM to 12-5, but more importantly put them at 2-1 in league play with their only loss at altitude in Flagstaff against NAU.

If Montana is to cap the season as one of the top two teams in the league to earn a crucial first-round bye at the championship tournament in Phoenix, it's that must-win time of the season.

"It's an important weekend we're excited to be back here and to play at home. I think the guys are too. They feel really confident and comfortable here. The home court advantage is real so we're going to try to take advantage of it," said Brown.

"We're going to take them both incredibly seriously and try to do what we have been doing well this season, which is win some doubles points and take advantage of some of the strengths we have up top. The middle of the lineup has been pretty solid too, so we just want to get some wins across the board for the Griz."

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior Tom Bittner was named the Big Sky's men's tennis Player of the Week on Wednesday for clinching the Grizzlies' win at Weber State in dramatic fashion with a dominant third set tiebreaker.

It's the second Player of the Week award of his career and the second for the Griz this season after Baltazar Wiger-Nordas earned the honors with a clinch at Air Force.

For Bittner, who has been slowly returning to health following offseason surgery, the timing of the confidence-boosting prize couldn't be more perfect – both for him and his teammates.

"(Winning Player of the Week) felt pretty good, especially knowing what I went through in the fall and that I'm still in the process of recovering. Lots of ups and downs for me lately, so it felt really good, and I think it's a sign that I'm definitely finding my level again," he said.

"And overall, I think it's just really good for our team. To get this award the whole team needs to play well and needs to win. So, it's pretty special for me, but also really good for our team."

Bittner enters the weekend at 7-5 in overall singles this season on the No. 1 court and is once again in the running for all-conference honors for a third-straight year.

DEPTH FOR DAYS: While Bittner and Wiger-Nordas have held down the top of the lineup with a combined 15-9 record on courts one and two, the depth of Grizzly roster has been even more impressive this season.

Freshman Duncan McCall and junior Eivind Tandberg both return home with 11 singles wins so for this year and a combined 22-9 record in the middle order, with McCall's seven wins on court three the most of any player in the league at that position.

McCall has also been a consistent winner in doubles, partnering with Johnny Wilkinson to go 12-5 together in the opening round.

SCOUTING PSU: The Vikings come to Missoula under first year head coach sixth year head coach at 4-9 on the season but riding a string of four consecutive losses and still searching for their first D-I win of the year.

Simon Kuszynksi, a junior from Markham, Ontario, leads the team in wins, holding down the bottom of the order at 7-4 on the season at line six with five straight wins.

SCOUTING IDAHO: The always-strong Vandals come to Missoula at 8-5 on the season but are 3-0 in league play having won two of the last three Big Sky tournament championships. They've also won four-straight, including victories at Gonzaga and San Diego State.

Junior Chetanna Amadike of Calgary leads the Vandals this season at 11-2 with eight of those wins coming at the top of the lineup on court two. Senior Francisco Gay has also been a stalwart for Idaho as a former Big Sky Freshman of the Year and a two-time all-conference honoree in singles and doubles. The Argentinian is 6-4 this season for Idaho, with all his matches played on court one.

UP NEXT: The Griz play their last true road match of the year on April 4, traveling to Pocatello to take on Idaho State. UM then returns home for the remainder of the regular season, taking on Eastern Washington April 12 and capping the slate with the annual Brawl of the Wild match against Montana State on April 19.

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Players Mentioned

Tom Bittner

Duncan McCall

Eivind Tandberg

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas

Johnny Wilkinson

University of Montana Athletics