Griz cap fall season with two wins at ITA West Sectional

MISSOULA - The Montana men's tennis team wrapped up its dream fall season with a pair of impressive wins at the ITA West Sectional Championships in Phoenix over the weekend.

Squaring off against some of the nation's blue-chip programs all competing for a trip to the NCAA Championships later this month in Georgia, Montana's two representatives fell in the main draws early but rebounded to pick up a pair of wins in the back draws.

Grizzly junior Duncan McCall earned one of the biggest singles victories of his career, taking down Stanford's Mark Krupkin in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) in an extra singles match.

He and his doubles partner Matt Upton followed that up with an 8-2 win over Arizona's Gustafsson/Juuhl-Sivertsen pair to cap the tournament with a victory in an extra doubles match.

"It was an amazing experience for our top two guys. I'm really proud of the way they competed and to come home with a couple of wins makes me happy," said head coach Jason Brown.

"The level at that tournament has gone through the roof. It was amazing to watch what great programs like UCLA, Cal, Stanford and Arizona are doing. It was good for our guys to see that level and see what we have to get better at. Plus, it was good for Grizzly tennis in general to compete with those tennis powerhouses."

The appearance in Phoenix brings the best fall season in program history to a close for UM. Upton and McCall were the first Grizzlies to ever earn a trip to the Sectional tournament after a run to the semifinals of the ITA Mountain Regional in Provo in October.

Montana also opened the tournament season with several wins at Air Force's Bedford Cup and a win in the orange draw of the Dar Walters Classic at Boise State. They also posted impressive results at Denver's Colorado Cup where UM swept the doubles competition and pulled off two dual wins against more of the region's top competition.

The Griz will now take that momentum into the spring dual season where Montana will look to capture its second Big Sky crown in three years after losing a pair of the top individuals in program history to graduation.

"I've talked about this being a rebuilding year, but what these guys have done this fall shows me their time is now. We don't need to wait for another year or two to get rolling," Brown said.

"Our fall started well at Air Force, it got better in Boise, and we had the best performance at regionals of any school in the Mountain West with a semifinal appearance in singles and a finals appearance in doubles. That shows me we're building this to be better than it was and that we can do some special things this year."

Montana Results – ITA West Sectionals

Main Draw Singles R32
Theo Coats (DU) def. Matt Upton (UM) 7-5, 6-2

Consolation Draw Singles R16
Glib Sekachov (UA) def. Matt Upton (UM) 7-5, 6-2

Extra Match Singles – Friday
Duncan McCall (UM) def. Mark Krupkin (STAN) 6-2, 6-3

Extra Match Singles – Saturday
Andy Nguyen (UCLA) def. Duncan McCall (UM) 6-2, 6-1
Luca Lemaitre (SCU) def. Matt Upton (UM) 6-1, 6-2

Main Draw Doubles R16
Adrien Berrut/Manvydas Balciunas (USD) def. Matt Upton/Duncan McCall 7-6(5), 6-3

Consolation Draw Doubles QF
Nikola Djosic/Ofek Shimanov (ASU) def. Matt Upton/Duncan McCall 8-3

Extra Match Doubles – Saturday
Matt Upton/Duncan McCall (UM) def. Filip Gustafsson/Sander Juuhl-Sivertsen (UA) 8-2

Teams Represented
DU – Denver
UA –Arizona
STAN – Stanford
UCLA – California, Los Angeles
SCU – Santa Clara
USD – San Diego
ASU – Arizona State

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Duncan McCall

Matt Upton

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