Griz drop pair of road matches in Denver

Saturday, February 7

Denver, Colo.

Noon

Montana

Utah

Photo by: Marley Barboeisel/University of Montana

2/8/2026 5:10:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team dropped a pair of duals against two of the top five teams in the Mountain Region over the weekend on a two-match road trip to Colorado. The Griz opened the trip with a 0-4 loss to the Utah Utes on a neutral court Saturday before falling to the Denver Pioneers 1-6 on Sunday in Denver.

The Grizzlies drop to 1-3 while working through a tough nonconference schedule. Utah improved to 3-3 after falling to Denver 3-4 the day before playing UM. The Pioneers remained undefeated on the season at 4-0 with additional wins over Texas Tech and Montana State.

Grizzly newcomer Joseph Townes was the only Montanan to score a team point on the weekend, taking a 7-6(3), 6-3, singles win over Denver's Aaron Bedhun on court six. The scorelines were closer than the final would indicate in both matches, with the Griz winning four sets against the Utes and forcing four singles tiebreakers against the Pioneers with one win in doubles.

"It was a tough ask for us early in the season playing two of the top teams in the region, one of them at home. The score lines are disappointing. We had our chances, but I felt like we weren't quite ready to take them. I'm just glad this happened in February. We'll use this to get stronger and build for March and April when it matters more," said head coach Jason Brown.

"There were some bright spots for sure. We competed well at almost every spot. I feel good about what we're building but we have to get better for us to fulfill our goals."

Against Utah, Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson were leading their opponents 5-4 on court two when the Utes won the doubles point with a 6-3 win on court one and a 6-1 win on three.

UM bounced back in singles, however, with McCall, Wilkinson, and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas all winning their first set and Matt Upton winning his second to wrestle momentum back on the Montana sideline. Straight set wins for the Utes on courts one and six seized that momentum back, however, as Utah took the team win 4-0 in the match played to clinch with Upton falling in his third set.

Denver jumped out to an early lead with a doubles win as well. Tom Bittner and Wiger-Nordas gave the Griz a chance to take the opening point with 6-3 win over the Mishiro/Roval pair on court one, but the Pioneers took wins on courts two and three to claim the point.

Bittner played two of his three singles sets to a tiebreaker, winning set one 7-6(6) over DU's Raffaello Papajcik, but eventually falling in a third set superbreaker 7-10. Meanwhile Townes won a tiebreaker of his own in the first set 7-6(3), and held on to beat Beduhn 6-3 in the second for UM's only point.

The Griz now return home for a pair of matches, starting with a Valentine's Day dual against Whitman followed by President's Day match against UC San Diego on Monday, Feb. 16, at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula.