Griz open Big Sky play with big win over Hornets in Friday split

Friday, March 7

Sacramento, Calif.

10:30 AM (MT)

Montana

Sacramento State

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 open Big Sky play with big win over Hornets in Friday split

3/7/2025 7:56:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team earned its first Big Sky Conference win of the season, knocking off defending league champion Sacramento State 5-2 in Sacramento on Friday morning, UM's first over the Hornets in California's Capital City since 2018.

Then after gutting out a key league win the Griz then limped into a nonconference dual against Nevada as part of the coinciding Golden State Invitational Tournament without the services of two top players. In dwindling daylight Montana gave the Wolfpack everything it could handle but eventually fell 4-1 to split the two matches on the day.

That loss was of little concern for Grizzly head coach Jason Brown, however, whose team traveled west with one goal: improve to 1-0 in conference play and the rest is gravy. Mission accomplished.

"Road wins in Big Sky tennis are really tough and the conditions here are so different than ours at home, so that win felt really good. It was just a great college tennis match as well," said Brown of the Sac State win.

"The guys showed a lot of energy and fought hard against Sac. That was the part of the trip we were focused on completely. It was the only thing that mattered on this trip, and I'm really proud of the guys for taking care of business."

Montana opened the day with a doubles victory over the Hornets, jumping out to a 1-0 team lead with wins on courts three and one. Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Fernando Perez locked in a 7-5 win on court one over SAC's Lamchinniah/Libal pair to go ahead. The freshman duo of Johnny Wilkinson and Duncan McCall clinched the point with a 6-4 win over the Duris/Wheatland pair on court three.

"Doubles continues to be a strong suit. We've only lost a couple of doubles points all season and we feel good about that part of our game," added Brown.

In singles, the Hornets tied the match with a win on court five, but the bottom of Montana's remaining lineup would go on to secure the win for the Griz.

UM pulled back ahead with a win from McCall (his second of the trip) over Nick Bowles, winning in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 to put the Griz up 2-1 in the team score. McCall was also UM's only winner over Pacific on Thursday.

Wiger-Nordas rebounded from a second-set loss on court two for UM's third win, beating Gur Libal 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. The Griz then clinched the win on court six when Eivind Tandberg beat David Dai 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, to put Montana up 4-1 and seal the team victory. The win for Tandberg was extra sweet after losing on Thursday against Pacific in straight sets.

"That was a great rebound from Eivind from yesterday when he really kind of struggled outside," said Brown.

After the match was clinched, the bottom of the UM lineup delivered again when Chris Zhang rolled to a 6-1, 6-3 win on court four over Hayden Rand to remain undefeated in singles on the season and put UM up 5-1.

The Griz closed out the match with a loss on court one, where Tom Bittner fell in a third set tiebreaker 5-7, 6-1, 10-2, for just his second loss of the season that made the final score 5-2 in UM's favor.

Three hours later against Nevada Montana was forced to rest Bitter and Perez on singles courts one and three with injury but still managed to give the Wolfpack a battle I the 4-1 loss that included a loss in the doubles round.

Tandberg picked up UM's only win of the match lower in the order to finish his day at 2-0.

Wiger-Nordas bumped up to court one and was serving with match point down 5-6 in the third set before getting broke to drop a thriller, and McCall also had a match point to win on court two before suffering a narrow defeat.

"Honestly, I'm really proud of how the guys fought today. We had to face plenty of adversity with injuries and the guys kept competing until the end, so hat's off to them," added Brown.

The Griz now prepare to cap the four-match tour to California with round two action at the Golden State Classic, taking on Saint Mary's on Saturday morning.