Griz bury Blues 6-1

Saturday, February 14

Missoula, Mont.

10:30 AM

Montana

Whitman

2/14/2026 3:35:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team took care of business against Whitman College on Saturday, opening its two match homestand with a 6-1 win over the Blues at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula.

The Griz improve to 2-3 on the year and get back in the win column after two road losses last week, while Whitman, the defending Northwest Conference champions, opens its season at 0-1.

Missing its No. 1 player to illness, Montana's shuffled lineup ground out a narrow win in the doubles round to start the match with a 1-0 advantage over a Whitman squad fired up to start its year. The Griz then asserted themselves in singles, winning five of the six matches, with each win coming in straight sets.

"We've been hit with some illness and were missing our top player and it felt like it. We effectively had three new doubles pairings, and it showed early on. The energy wasn't what it needed to be, but the boys competed well and it was a good day overall. We'll put another win at the Peak in the books and get ready for Monday against UCSD," said head coach Jason Brown.

"Hats off to Whitman, too. They came in and competed hard. These D-I matches are a big deal for them, and they did a great job of making it competitive across the board."

Montana opened the match with a pair of tight wins on doubles courts one and three as Whitman came out of the gates firing.

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas and Duncan McCall finished strong against the Blues' Rush/Manov pair 6-4 after the match was tied four-all for the first Grizzly win. UM then clinched the round on court three when Johnny Wilkinson and Joseph Townes did the same, pulling out the last two games to win 7-5 after being knotted a five.

On court two, Eivind Tandberg saw his first action of the season as he recovers from injury, pairing with Matt Upton in another narrow match tied 5-5 when the round was clinched in favor of the Griz.

Moving into singles, Wilkinson picked up the first of five Grizzly wins on the day, dropping just one game in a dominant win over Guillermo Rodriguez, 6-1, 6-0.

Wiger-Nordas had perhaps the highlight of the day, landing a between-the-legs drop shot in open space for a second set winner on court one en route to a 6-3, 6-0 sweep of Alexander Stage, the No. 10 rated player in all D-III tennis.

Upton, a freshman, clinched the win for UM on court three with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Artem Manov to make it a 4-0 team score line.

Whitman then picked up its only win of the day on court two with Southern Miss transfer Niklas Jensen catching fire and upsetting Duncan McCall 6-4, 7-5, to make it 4-1 in the overall score.

The Grizzlies cruised from there, losing just six combined games in the final four sets of tennis. Townes rolled past Charles Boyden 6-1, 6-1 on court five to add another team point for UM, and Moritz Lesjak capped the day with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Hanri Lou on court six to make the final score 6-1 in favor of the Griz.

Montana now turns its attention to the UC San Diego Tritons who visit Missoula for a nonconference dual on Monday at 9:30 a.m. Admission to the Peak for the match is free and open to the public.