Sunday, March 30
Missoula, Mont.
10:30 AM
Montana
5
vs
2
Idaho
Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana
Griz rally, beat Vandals in a thriller
3/30/2025 7:51:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Coming into Sunday's dual, the Idaho men's tennis team was unbeaten in Big Sky Conference play and was riding a five-match win streak with road wins at Gonzaga, San Diego State, and Montana State among them. In other words, proven dangerous outside of Moscow.
The Montana Grizzlies put an end to all that in emphatic fashion, however, taking a thrilling 5-2 victory over the Vandals (UM's first in a Big Sky dual since 2021) with ocean-like waves of momentum crashing around the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula all afternoon.
Montana started with a win in doubles, splitting the top two matches decisively before pulling away for a narrow win in the third. The margins were slimmer in singles as well, with three of the top four matches going into a third set, and the fourth settled with a pair of tiebreakers.
To add to the drama, the Griz were forced to dig themselves out of a hole as Idaho won first sets on each of the top three courts, forcing UM to play from behind all day.
But in the end Montana earned the bounce-back wins it needed on courts one and two and won both tiebreakers on court four to seal the team win at 4-1, with Baltazar Wiger-Nordas clinching the team victory on line two. From there the Griz would go on to win the six-hour marathon 5-2, with eight of the 17 – nearly half of all singles sets – extending into a tiebreaker.
"That was a something. Just a really competitive, hard-fought college tennis match. It was up and down from the start but that's what you expect from a conference foe. Idaho was undefeated in conference coming here for a reason. They're a really good team," said head coach Jason Brown.
"I'm just super proud of our team. We had a couple guys lose first sets and come back to get it done, which was obviously the difference. Then the freshmen coming through on court three doubles – they really stepped up when they needed to. But I'm proud of the team. We just played half of our home conference matches in a 24-hour period, and we took care of business."
Montana now improves to 14-5 overall and 4-1 in Big Sky play after also beating Portland State in Missoula on Saturday. Idaho falls to 9-5 overall and 4-1 in league action, and the Griz now move firmly into second place in the Big Sky standings with the head-to-head advantage over the Vandals.
UM's 14 wins are now tied for the third-most in modern program history, still with three conference matches to play and a potential trip to the Big Sky Championship Tournament on the schedule. The Griz are chasing 2022's semifinal season where they went 15-5, and 2012's 16-5 season when they won their first and only Big Sky regular season title.
Gallery: (3-30-2025) MTEN: vs Idaho (03.30.25)
A neck-and-neck doubles round got started with a loss for the Griz as Idaho's Gay/Lai pair blowing past Fernando Perez and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas 6-1 on court one. Montana then repaid the favor soon after with a big win of its own as Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg rolled over the Amadike/Medica pair 6-1 as well, setting up the decider on court three.
That's when UM's dynamic Freshman duo Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson took control. Tied with Idaho's De Col/Moroder pair 3-3, McCall smashed a return down the center line to give the pair a 4-3 advantage. Down 30-love in the next game, they then stole all hope from Idaho, winning four straight points to go up 5-3 against the serve and eventually holding on to win 6-4 to hand the Griz the opening point.
"Hats-off to Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson, because that's a lot of pressure for two freshmen. I think the doubles point really decided this. When we got it, I thought, okay, it's real tough for us to lose four singles matches inside the Peak, and we didn't," added Brown.
And tough it was.
At the start of singles play Idaho had seized momentum again in a matter of minutes, quieting the UM crowd with first set wins on courts one, two and three, and court four headed to a tiebreaker. The Griz may have won doubles, but control of the match was rapidly slipping through their fingers.
The tide would shift again, however, as Montana battled back with second set wins on each of the top three courts to set up a third and deciding set that could have erased Montana's lead.
McCall's comeback attempt on court three fell short, however, as Sebastian Medica rallied in the third set for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, win that briefly tied the overall team score 1-1.
Grizzly No. 1 and the defending Big Sky Player of the Week Tom Bittner fared better though, riding the momentum shift and breaking Francisco Gay's serve back-to-back to go up 5-1 in the third set. The UM junior kept rolling, eventually beating Gay (the former Big Sky Freshman of the Year and three-time all-conference honoree) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to earn his third-straight win and stay undefeated on the weekend while putting the Griz up 2-1 in the team score.
Meanwhile on court four, Tandberg helped turn the tide inside the Peak again with a comeback win in his first of two tiebreakers. Trailing Yu-Shun Lai 6-7 late in the first set tiebreaker, the Grizzly junior forced a pair of errors from his Vandal opponent to win the extra frame 7-6 (7) – UM's only first-set win on the top four courts.
The Norwegian held on to win yet another tiebreaker in the second set 7-6 (5) to pile on the momentum for the Griz and bump the team lead up to 3-1 with a dual victory in sight. Tandberg has been one of Montana's most consistent winners in recent weeks, earning his seventh victory in the last nine outings, improving his personal singles record to a team-best 13-5 and making him the first player in the Big Sky Conference to tally 13 wins this season.
"There was probably a half dozen momentum shifts. They did a great job of taking away our home court advantage, got real fired up, and got some momentum early with three first sets. But none of our guys rolled over. Not letting them put some of those points on the board was massive in these college duals," said Brown.
With a palpable tension in the room thick enough to cut with a knife the outcome of the dual was still not certain, despite Montana now holding a 3-1 lead.
That changed on court two, however, when Wiger-Nordas bounced back from his first set loss to grind out a second set tiebreaker that put him in control over Chetanna Amadike in a blow-for-blow win. The Grizzly junior found himself up 5-3 in the third set with the serve, but trailing 30-love and facing a threat of a broken serve from Amadike that could have changed the outcome of the whole match.
It was not to be though, as Wiger-Nordas rattled off four-straight points to win the game on match point 5-7, 7-5 (5), 6-3, to clinch the win for the Griz at 4-1, and causing his teammates to mob him at mid-court.
"I'm really happy with both how I played and how everybody on the team fought. We went down a set in three of those four singles matches and were battling on all the courts. So obviously we're happy that we pulled through in most of those spots," said Wiger-Nordas.
"I'm not going to lie, the home crowd helped me out, like, a lot today. I don't think I could have done it without the support of the team and the fans who came out. The atmosphere was crazy. I needed the crowd to get going so I could find something, and everybody was screaming like crazy. It really helped me find something I didn't know I had there for a moment."
In a match of momentum shifts, Wiger-Nordas also credits instructions from Brown to serve wide and energy boosts from wins on the surrounding courts as motivators to sealing the victory.
"I think I just had more of a willingness to grind in the points, suffer through a longer match, and just believe I could do it was the biggest thing. There wasn't much belief in the first set, but in the second and third I had no doubt," he added.
With the team victory in hand Montana capped the match with even more tiebreakers, splitting the remaining singles matches on courts five and six that each went three sets and featured five extra frames in the combined six sets.
UP NEXT: Montana hits the road for the final time in the regular season on Friday, heading south on I-15 to Pocatello for a one-off dual against Idaho State, with the Bengals sitting at 7-10 overall and 1-2 in league play.
The Griz then return home for the remainder of the regular season, hosting Eastern Washington April 12 and Montana State on April 19 in the annual Brawl of the Wild Match.
"It was great to finally get some matches in the Peak," added Wiger-Nordas.
"We didn't play our absolute best tennis at all times today, but we lifted our overall level as a team and the support for each other was great. So, this is a great momentum builder heading into our last few matches."
The Montana Grizzlies put an end to all that in emphatic fashion, however, taking a thrilling 5-2 victory over the Vandals (UM's first in a Big Sky dual since 2021) with ocean-like waves of momentum crashing around the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula all afternoon.
Montana started with a win in doubles, splitting the top two matches decisively before pulling away for a narrow win in the third. The margins were slimmer in singles as well, with three of the top four matches going into a third set, and the fourth settled with a pair of tiebreakers.
To add to the drama, the Griz were forced to dig themselves out of a hole as Idaho won first sets on each of the top three courts, forcing UM to play from behind all day.
But in the end Montana earned the bounce-back wins it needed on courts one and two and won both tiebreakers on court four to seal the team win at 4-1, with Baltazar Wiger-Nordas clinching the team victory on line two. From there the Griz would go on to win the six-hour marathon 5-2, with eight of the 17 – nearly half of all singles sets – extending into a tiebreaker.
"That was a something. Just a really competitive, hard-fought college tennis match. It was up and down from the start but that's what you expect from a conference foe. Idaho was undefeated in conference coming here for a reason. They're a really good team," said head coach Jason Brown.
"I'm just super proud of our team. We had a couple guys lose first sets and come back to get it done, which was obviously the difference. Then the freshmen coming through on court three doubles – they really stepped up when they needed to. But I'm proud of the team. We just played half of our home conference matches in a 24-hour period, and we took care of business."
Montana now improves to 14-5 overall and 4-1 in Big Sky play after also beating Portland State in Missoula on Saturday. Idaho falls to 9-5 overall and 4-1 in league action, and the Griz now move firmly into second place in the Big Sky standings with the head-to-head advantage over the Vandals.
UM's 14 wins are now tied for the third-most in modern program history, still with three conference matches to play and a potential trip to the Big Sky Championship Tournament on the schedule. The Griz are chasing 2022's semifinal season where they went 15-5, and 2012's 16-5 season when they won their first and only Big Sky regular season title.
A neck-and-neck doubles round got started with a loss for the Griz as Idaho's Gay/Lai pair blowing past Fernando Perez and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas 6-1 on court one. Montana then repaid the favor soon after with a big win of its own as Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg rolled over the Amadike/Medica pair 6-1 as well, setting up the decider on court three.
That's when UM's dynamic Freshman duo Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson took control. Tied with Idaho's De Col/Moroder pair 3-3, McCall smashed a return down the center line to give the pair a 4-3 advantage. Down 30-love in the next game, they then stole all hope from Idaho, winning four straight points to go up 5-3 against the serve and eventually holding on to win 6-4 to hand the Griz the opening point.
"Hats-off to Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson, because that's a lot of pressure for two freshmen. I think the doubles point really decided this. When we got it, I thought, okay, it's real tough for us to lose four singles matches inside the Peak, and we didn't," added Brown.
And tough it was.
At the start of singles play Idaho had seized momentum again in a matter of minutes, quieting the UM crowd with first set wins on courts one, two and three, and court four headed to a tiebreaker. The Griz may have won doubles, but control of the match was rapidly slipping through their fingers.
The tide would shift again, however, as Montana battled back with second set wins on each of the top three courts to set up a third and deciding set that could have erased Montana's lead.
McCall's comeback attempt on court three fell short, however, as Sebastian Medica rallied in the third set for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, win that briefly tied the overall team score 1-1.
Grizzly No. 1 and the defending Big Sky Player of the Week Tom Bittner fared better though, riding the momentum shift and breaking Francisco Gay's serve back-to-back to go up 5-1 in the third set. The UM junior kept rolling, eventually beating Gay (the former Big Sky Freshman of the Year and three-time all-conference honoree) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, to earn his third-straight win and stay undefeated on the weekend while putting the Griz up 2-1 in the team score.
Meanwhile on court four, Tandberg helped turn the tide inside the Peak again with a comeback win in his first of two tiebreakers. Trailing Yu-Shun Lai 6-7 late in the first set tiebreaker, the Grizzly junior forced a pair of errors from his Vandal opponent to win the extra frame 7-6 (7) – UM's only first-set win on the top four courts.
The Norwegian held on to win yet another tiebreaker in the second set 7-6 (5) to pile on the momentum for the Griz and bump the team lead up to 3-1 with a dual victory in sight. Tandberg has been one of Montana's most consistent winners in recent weeks, earning his seventh victory in the last nine outings, improving his personal singles record to a team-best 13-5 and making him the first player in the Big Sky Conference to tally 13 wins this season.
"There was probably a half dozen momentum shifts. They did a great job of taking away our home court advantage, got real fired up, and got some momentum early with three first sets. But none of our guys rolled over. Not letting them put some of those points on the board was massive in these college duals," said Brown.
With a palpable tension in the room thick enough to cut with a knife the outcome of the dual was still not certain, despite Montana now holding a 3-1 lead.
That changed on court two, however, when Wiger-Nordas bounced back from his first set loss to grind out a second set tiebreaker that put him in control over Chetanna Amadike in a blow-for-blow win. The Grizzly junior found himself up 5-3 in the third set with the serve, but trailing 30-love and facing a threat of a broken serve from Amadike that could have changed the outcome of the whole match.
It was not to be though, as Wiger-Nordas rattled off four-straight points to win the game on match point 5-7, 7-5 (5), 6-3, to clinch the win for the Griz at 4-1, and causing his teammates to mob him at mid-court.
"I'm really happy with both how I played and how everybody on the team fought. We went down a set in three of those four singles matches and were battling on all the courts. So obviously we're happy that we pulled through in most of those spots," said Wiger-Nordas.
"I'm not going to lie, the home crowd helped me out, like, a lot today. I don't think I could have done it without the support of the team and the fans who came out. The atmosphere was crazy. I needed the crowd to get going so I could find something, and everybody was screaming like crazy. It really helped me find something I didn't know I had there for a moment."
In a match of momentum shifts, Wiger-Nordas also credits instructions from Brown to serve wide and energy boosts from wins on the surrounding courts as motivators to sealing the victory.
"I think I just had more of a willingness to grind in the points, suffer through a longer match, and just believe I could do it was the biggest thing. There wasn't much belief in the first set, but in the second and third I had no doubt," he added.
With the team victory in hand Montana capped the match with even more tiebreakers, splitting the remaining singles matches on courts five and six that each went three sets and featured five extra frames in the combined six sets.
UP NEXT: Montana hits the road for the final time in the regular season on Friday, heading south on I-15 to Pocatello for a one-off dual against Idaho State, with the Bengals sitting at 7-10 overall and 1-2 in league play.
The Griz then return home for the remainder of the regular season, hosting Eastern Washington April 12 and Montana State on April 19 in the annual Brawl of the Wild Match.
"It was great to finally get some matches in the Peak," added Wiger-Nordas.
"We didn't play our absolute best tennis at all times today, but we lifted our overall level as a team and the support for each other was great. So, this is a great momentum builder heading into our last few matches."
That's the CLINCHER for Balty! 🔥🔥
— Montana Griz Men's Tennis 🎾 (@MontanaGrizMTEN) March 30, 2025
What. A. Match. 3 of the 4 singles go to a third set, with the 4th with two tiebreakers 🤯#GoGriz pic.twitter.com/Ij0as7gXJX
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,2,3
#1 Singles Match
123
Francisco GAY / 0 [UI]
634
466
#2 Singles Match
123
Chetanna AMADIKE / 0 [UI]
763
576
#3 Singles Match
123
Sebastian MEDICA / 0 [UI]
646
364
#4 Singles Match
12
Yu-Shun LAI / 0 [UI]
66
77
#5 Singles Match
123
Gabriel MORODER / 0 [UI]
740
661
#6 Singles Match
123
Eric WANG / 0 [UI]
671
760
Order of Finish:
3,1,4,2,5,6
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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