Griz sweep Eagles 7-0

Saturday, April 12

Missoula, Mont.

9 AM

Montana

Eastern Washington

Photo by: Tommy Martino/University of Montana

4/12/2025 3:48:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team took care of business against Eastern Washington in a Big Sky dual at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula on Saturday, clinching the team win in under two hours and going on to sweep the Eagles 7-0.

Montana willed its way to wins on all three doubles courts before riding the momentum into singles and taking straight-set wins on all six courts to run away with the victory.

The Griz now improve 15-6 on the season, 5-2 in Big Sky play, and, for the time being remain locked into second place in the conference standings. After playing its penultimate match before the program is disbanded, Eastern Washington falls to 4-17 on the year and 1-6 in league play.

The Griz will need some help to secure the second seed at the Big Sky tournament at the end of the month. In addition to winning-out, Montana will need a loss for Idaho State at the tail end of the season with both teams sitting at two losses and the Bengals holding a tiebreaker over UM.

Montana's 15 wins are now tied for the second-most in modern program history with 2022's semifinal team that went 15-5, and is now chasing 2012's 16-5 season when the Griz won their first and only Big Sky regular season title.

The Griz now prepare to end the regular season on April 19 against the in-state rival Montana State Bobcats in the annual Brawl of the Wild match in Missoula.

"We got exactly what we wanted out of today's match. It was an early start, the guys were ready to roll, and everybody got a doubles win. Singles was pretty straight forward, but it was competitive. It wasn't a walk in the park at all. These guys came in fired up and were swinging for the fences and competing hard, which was cool to see," said head coach Jason Brown.

"One of our big goals this season was to go undefeated at home and now we're one step away. So, we're excited about getting a few days to recover before getting that chance next weekend against the neighbors."

Gallery: (4-12-2025) MTEN: vs EWU (04.12.25)

Against Eastern, Montana swept the doubles round to start the match up a team point with wins on all three courts.

Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson continued to position themselves as one of the top doubles teams in the Big Sky. The freshmen improved to 14-6 on the season overall – the most wins of any pair in the league – with a 6-3 win over EWU's Kammerer/Thomas pair to get the Griz on the board.

UM then clinched the doubles point soon after with a 6-2 win on court two from Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg over the Eagles' Bhatti/Dillon pair that sealed the team point for UM.

Fernando Perez and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas put the icing on the cake for the Griz on court one, beating the Dalos/Waddock pair 6-4 to give Montana the sweep of the round and momentum headed to singles.

There, McCall was first to finish, beating Drew Dillon 6-2, 6-3, to move to 14 wins on the season in singles as well, the most of any freshman in the league at 14-5 and 5-2 in conference play.

Tandberg also improved his overall record as one of the tops in the league, beating Caden Kammerer 6-3, 6-3, to sit at 14-6 on the season as well and put the Griz up 3-0 in the team score.

Bittner then earned his fifth-consecutive singles win, clinching the match for Montana with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over EWU No. 1 Tyler Waddock who is set to transfer to New Mexico in the offseason.

With the overall team win in hand, freshman Moritz Lesjak breezed passed Brady Thomas 6-2, 6-1 for UM's fifth victory and senior Fernando Perez completed the sweep with a win over Arshjot Bhatti 6-4, 6-4 on court five.

Montana now prepares to host Montana State in the tennis edition of the Brawl of the Wild in Missoula on April 19, with serves going up at 1:30 p.m. at the Peak Racquet Club. Admission is open to the public and free of charge.