Griz hang tough with No. 59 Tigers to open California road trip

Thursday, March 6

Stockton, Calif.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Pacific

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

Griz hang tough with No. 59 Tigers to open California road trip

3/6/2025 6:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team got the tune-up it was looking for on Thursday despite coming up short on the scoreboard as the Griz opened their four-match trip to California with a competitive 4-1 loss to the nationally ranked Pacific Tigers in Stockton.

The nonconference dual against the No. 59 Tigers (UM's first of the year at sea level and first outdoors) was, for all intents and purposes, a prep match for the Griz, who open Big Sky play at Sacramento State on Friday morning.

After a team loss in doubles, Grizzly freshman Duncan McCall earned Montana's only win of the afternoon on court three. Meanwhile, junior Baltazar Wiger-Nordas was leading in a third set on court two and senior Chris Zhang was leading in the second on five when Pacific clinched the win, giving UM a shot at an upset.

"I think any time you are playing your first outdoor tennis since the middle of October, and you're on the road against a national ranked team, it's a tall task. Pacific did a great job of using the home advantage. They had some rowdy fans in a beautiful new facility, but it was a great college tennis match," said head coach Jason Brown.

"We got exactly what we wanted out of it. It was a very competitive, tough match the day before we open our conference slate under similar conditions. They were just a little bit better in the tight spots. They won doubles, but we honestly had battles across the board and singles. To a man I thought the level was above my expectations to be honest."

In doubles, Fernando Perez and Wiger-Nordas were knotted on court one with Pacific's Amar/Coffey pair when the Tigers claimed the opening team point with wins on courts two and three.

Pacific extended its lead in singles court four when Perez was forced to retire injured to make it a 2-0 team score.

The Griz then got on the board when McCall powered his way fellow New Zealander Jonty Giessen 6-2, 6-2 on court three to make it 2-1 in the team tally. Straight set losses for Eivind Tandberg (6-3, 6-2) on six and Tom Bittner (6-4, 6-4) on one would give the Tiger's the four requisite wins to clinch the overall team victory at 4-1

The Griz now turn their attention to a monumental Big Sky showdown at Sacramento State on Friday morning. The dual between two of the perennial top contenders in the league is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. MT and pits the preseason No. 2 Griz against the No. 6 Hornets.

The dual is also the opening match of the Golden State Invitational Mini-Tournament for the Griz, featuring eight teams from around the region. After the UM/SAC conference match, Montana will later take on Nevada Friday afternoon and Saint Mary's on Saturday morning in a pair of neutral site duals.

With the upcoming Big Sky Conference tourney rapidly closing-in at the end of April in Phoenix, the Griz are using the trip to California to get as many reps as possible outdoors in similar conditions.

"I honestly think the guys gained a lot of confidence from this match, even though it didn't finish our way in the record book," added Brown.

"I think we're playing great tennis right now, so we're going to go give Sac State everything we've got and finish the trip off with a couple other matches to just get us a little more prepared for Phoenix and the conference championship."