Griz advance to title match with upset over Bengals

Friday, April 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

9 AM (MT)

Montana

Idaho State

Griz advance to title match with upset over Bengals

4/25/2025 3:06:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

PHOENIX – The Montana men's tennis team will play for the Big Sky Conference tournament championship after the three-seed Griz upset two-seed Idaho State 4-1 in the semifinal round at the Phoenix Tennis Center on Friday.

The Grizzlies advance to the title match for the first time since 2018, seeking their first tournament trophy since 2014 when UM faced Oklahoma in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Against Idaho State, Montana got the start it was looking for in doubles with a pair of big wins at the bottom of the lineup to go up 1-0. UM juniors Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg throttled ISU's Lamothe/Rawson pair on court two 6-1 to get the Griz rolling before the Bengals tied the round with a win on court one. Freshmen Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson then clinched the round on court three with a 6-3 win.

The Griz then claimed straight set singles wins on courts three, five, and six to clinch the overall victory.

"That was the best doubles, especially at two for us, of the season. That team was 8-0 in conference, and we beat them 6-1. So, it was just outstanding doubles and it really set the tone. Then we just had some really straight forward wins in singles down low," said head coach Jason Brown.

The youth of Montana's roster shone through against Bengals as UM's dynamic freshman doubles duo clinched the opening point. Two Grizzly freshmen also picked up key singles wins with the clincher coming from McCall – the Big Sky Freshman of the Year – for the second straight day.

As he did against Sacramento State in the tournament quarterfinal, the New Zealander once again came back from down a break in each of his two singles sets to beat ISU's Jowan Rawson 6-2, 6-3, to punch Montana's ticket to the championship match.

But it was another freshman that really stole the show for the Griz.

Playing in just his third match of the last month, freshman Moritz Lesjak replaced senior Chris Zhang at No. 6 in the Grizzly singles lineup the morning of the match and did nothing but dominate, beating ISU's Luka Vujacic 6-1, 6-1, after Vujacic had won 11 matches this season.

Lesjak's win made it a 3-0 Grizzly lead after team captain Fernando Perez won his seventh-straight singles match by beating Quentin Lamothe 6-2, 6-2, on court five.

"We were saving Moritz for just this occasion, and he could not have stepped up more. I mean, he was just outstanding. We've been calling him "The Future," and the future is now," said Brown.

Montana improves its program record for wins in a season, now at 18-6 on the year, riding a four-match win streak into the final having lost only one individual match in that time. The Griz will face Northern Arizona in the title match after the Lumberjacks defeated Idaho 4-1 in the day's other semifinal.

No. 1 seed and regular season champion NAU beat the Griz 7-0 earlier this season at altitude in Flagstaff and went 17-8 on the season and 8-0 in league play. Montana holds a 7-6 all-time advantage over the Lumberjacks at the Big Sky tourney, but the two have never met in the championship match.