Montana splits weekend road duals in North Dakota

Friday, February 27

Grand Forks, N.D.

10:30 AM (MT)

Montana

North Dakota

Montana plays UC San Diego at PEAK Fitness Center on Monday. February. 16, 2026.

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke / University of Montana

2/28/2026 8:30:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team and North Dakota have built somewhat of a regional rivalry over the last three years, with each annual meeting closely contested and coming down to a one-court decision, with 4-3 finals in each of the past three duals.

The fourth and fifth meetings between the two flagship institutions were hardly any different, with the Griz splitting a pair of thrillers in Grand Forks over the weekend, the first a 4-3 loss for UM and the second a 5-2 win.

The two matches continued the trend of being as evenly-matched as possible with the Griz dropping both doubles points, both in a tiebreaker, but rebounding to close the gap in singles. On day one, UM fell just short in singles with a third set tiebreaker being the difference. On day two Montana's singles play pulled them through to a bounce-back victory with wins on five of the six courts.

With the split, Montana stays at .500 on the year with a 4-4 nonconference record and claims its first road win of the season. The Fighting Hawks, a Summit League finalist from a year ago who have already beat Montana State and Idaho this season, move to 8-6.

"This weekend was exactly what we needed. Good road matches against a quality opponent. We put these matches on the schedule to help build some toughness for the conference season, and I think we got what we needed out of them," said head coach Jason Brown.

"It was tough to lose doubles points both days, and it was the difference on day one. We were much, much, better the second day, especially in singles. It was a nice response from the guys, and we're coming home with a lot of confidence. That's what's important."

The Griz were paced by the youth in the lineup, with sophomores Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson and freshman Matt Upton going unbeaten in singles over the course of both duals.

In Friday's match, the Griz opened with a chance to win the all-important doubles point but let a lead slip through their fingers in crunch time. UM had a chance to bounce back for a win in the singles round as well, but eventually fell in the deciding third set, leading UND to the 4-3 win.

In doubles, North Dakota started the match with the advantage thanks to a win on court three, but not long after UM's all-conference duo of Tom Bittner and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas leveled the score with a 6-4 win over the Hawk's Galliano/Matsumura pair on court one.

Meanwhile on court two, McCall and Wilkinson were in the driver's seat to clinch the round for the Griz with a 5-4 lead, but a huge comeback from UND's Alex/Kumar forced a tiebreaker, eventually leading to a 7-6 (2) win for the home team and a 1-0 overall lead in the team score.

In singles, the Hawks extended the lead with an upset on court one with Leo Galliano pitching a second set shutout in a 6-2, 6-0, win over Bittner, who played his first singles match since Valentines Day after dealing with a bout of the flu.

Now trailing 2-0, the Griz got in the win column when McCall earned a court two sweep, playing up a spot for an injured Wiger-Nordas. The sophomore jumped out to a 6-1 win in the first set and sealed the point for the Griz with a 6-4 win in the second to beat UND's Darrsh Suresh Kumar in straights.

North Dakota then extended its lead with another win in straight sets on court six, with Walker Valentine defeating Moritz Lesjak handily in the first set then hanging on in a close second for a 6-1, 7-5 win that put the home team up 3-1.

Montana started its comeback on the remaining three courts, however, eventually putting the Griz within a set of the rebound victory.

Upton ground out a tiebreaker in his first set on line three and went on to defeat Justin Illic in straights 7-6 (5), 6-3, to cut the UND lead to 3-2 with two more courts in play.

Montana then tied the match three-all with Wilkinson, who rebounded from a tough loss in doubles and a first set singles loss to pull out a big three set win over Christos Alex on court five, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. That win placed the outcome of the dual hanging on the result on court four.

There, UM newcomer Joseph Townes dropped his first set to Kotaru Matsumura, but then rode Montana's wave of momentum to a win in the second, setting up a third set to decide the winning team. Matsumura proved too strong on his home courts, however, taking down Townes 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, to seal the 4-3 victory for the Hawks.

In Saturday's match the Griz shuffled the lineup but again came out on the wrong end of a deciding tiebreaker in doubles to fall behind the Hawks 1-0 in the early going. This time, however, singles pulled UM through to the team win.

McCall and Wilkinson, who have been UM's most consistent winners in doubles, bumped up to court one, swapping places with Bittner and Wiger-Nordas on courts one and two. McCall and Wilkinson were outmatched on court one, however falling to the Galliano/Valentine pair to put the Griz behind the eight ball.

Eivind Tandberg and Upton scored a 7-5 win on court three over the illic/Wiber pair, however, to even the score and again leave the doubles up to a deciding third match. On court two, Bittner and Wiger-Nordas were neck-and-neck the whole way with UND's Alex/Kumar pair, but eventually dropped the set 6-7 (5) to put UM behind 0-1.

The Griz would get the comeback they were looking for in singles, however, as the bottom of the UM lineup cruised to straight set wins to give Montana the advantage, with Bittner clinching the victory on court two in a tiebreaker.

Upton started UM off with his second singles win of the weekend, rolling past Matsumura 6-1, 6-3 on court four to tie the match 1-1. Townes then rebounded from Friday's loss to beat Alex in a clean 6-3, 6-2 decision on court five as well to put UM up in the team score 2-1.

Wilkinson rattled-off UM's third consecutive win to extend the Grizzly lead to 3-1, beating Valentine 7-5, 6-1, on court six to put the Griz in spitting distance of the team win.

Bittner played the clincher for the Griz on court two, sealing the win with a second set tiebreaker over Kumar 6-3, 7-6 (3), to put UM up for good 4-1.

McCall put the finishing touches on the weekend for the Griz with another third set tiebreaker win on court three over Illic, bouncing back to win 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (8).

UP NEXT: Montana heads to Boise as one of six teams competing in the Boise State Spring Invitational where the Griz will get three matches over the course of two days, March 6-7. UM will get a Big Sky preview with duals against Idaho State and the host Broncos in Bracket A round robin action on day one. The Griz will then take on either BYU, Gonzaga, or Idaho in the knockout stage on day two.