Men’s tennis hosts Whitworth in Sunday dual

The Montana men's tennis team remains at home for one match this week as the Grizzlies take on the Whitworth Pirates in a nonconference dual at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula on Sunday.

The action gets underway at 1:30 p.m., with admission to the Peak free and open to the public. Links to follow the live scoring of the match can be found at GoGriz.com/MTEN.

The Griz enter the dual at 0-1 on the early schedule after dropping a narrow 3-4 loss to Utah State in the season opener last Sunday in Missoula, something that doesn't happen very often. Montana is now 44-8 at home since 2018, a .850 win percentage in the friendly confines of the Peak.

They'll put that record to the test against a Whitworth squad that comes to Missoula at 1-0 on the year as of Friday morning thanks to a 5-2 win over Calgary in Spokane last week. Between now and Sunday, however, the Pirates will challenge themselves with a pair of duals in Bozeman, taking on Montana State and Idaho State in a Saturday doubleheader.

For Montana, the defending Big Sky tournament champions and preseason league favorites, the goal of returning to the lofty heights of the NCAA tourney remains the same, despite dropping a rare home match to start the year.

"It's a long season, so I think this is a great chance to respond to a tough loss. I spoke with legendary Griz tennis coach Kris Nord and he reminded me that sometimes the best thing that can happen to your team is to have a tough loss early, so I'm going to take his wise words and run with them and hopefully get us back on the winning track this weekend," said head coach Jason Brown.

"We don't lose much at home, so that's a great motivator and we're going to make sure we're doing everything in our power to make sure it doesn't happen again this season."

Sophomore Duncan McCall was Montana's nominee for Big Sky Player of the Week on Monday following an individual sweep of Utah State. The reigning conference Freshman of the Year and his All-Big Sky doubles partner Johnny Wilkinson paired up to clinch the doubles point for Montana with a gritty 7-5 win on court two.

Then in singles McCall bounced back from a first set loss to win 11 of the last 12 games and dominate the second and third sets over Eliot Nobel, wining 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 to secure another team point for Montana.

Wilkinson also scored a team point for the Griz on court five, pulling out another three setter over Jakub Medved 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Scouting Whitworth: The Pirates are led by sophomore Ryan Ashley, a Helena native and Capital High graduate who led the team in wins as a freshman with a 9-11 singles record and a 10-10 doubles record.

The Griz last faced Whitworth a year ago to the day, beating the Pirates 6-1, 6-1, in a doubleheader over in Spokane.

Up Next: Montana travels to Colorado's Front Range next weekend for a pair of duals at the University of Denver. The Griz open the trip with a nonconference match against the Utah Utes on Feb. 7, followed by a dual with the hometown DU Pioneers on Feb. 8.

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Players Mentioned

Duncan McCall

Johnny Wilkinson

University of Montana Athletics