Griz open conference play with a road win in Portland

Sunday, March 15

Portland, Ore.

11 AM (MT)

Montana

Portland State

Griz open conference play with a road win in Portland

3/15/2026 5:55:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team held of a Portland State comeback attempt with pair of clutch three-set wins in the middle of the order to defeat the Vikings 5-2 at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton on Sunday.

The victory gets Montana off to a winning start to conference play at 1-0 in Big Sky action, improves the Griz to 7-6 overall on the season, and for the first time in recent history puts UM at 2-0 against both D-I teams in Rip City after beating the Portland Pilots 5-2 on Friday.

Montana earned the league win over PSU in dramatic fashion, starting strong with a win in the doubles round and taking two quick singles wins to build a 3-0 lead and needing just one more point to clinch the team victory. The Vikings chipped away at that lead, however, taking wins on courts one and five to cut the UM advantage to 3-2 with both of the remaining courts heading to a third set.

The youth of the Grizzly roster came through when it mattered most, however, as the defending Big Sky Freshman of the Year Duncan McCall rallied while trailing 3-4 in the deciding set to beat Luca Prino on court three and clinch the victory for Montana. Freshman Matt Upton then put the icing on the cake for the Griz, rolling to a 6-2 win over Edoardo Cravenzola in the third set to make the final score 5-2.

"That was a super composed, team effort. Road wins in the Big Sky are hard to come by, and hats-off to Portland State, because that was a battle. It felt like having a three touchdown lead and they start reeling you back in the fourth quarter, but our sophomore and freshman on courts three and four just stepped up and took care of business," said head coach Jason Brown.

"We continue to be really good in doubles as well, which is nice to see. It's the first time in school history we've escaped the Rose City with two victories. So, we're pretty enthused and hopefully this helps us build some momentum for the rest of conference play."

The Griz opened the match with a second-straight win in the doubles round after starting strong against the Pilots on Friday as well.

McCall and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas knocked off the Cravenzola/Schotanus pair 6-4 on court one, while at almost the same time UM clinched the opening point when seniors Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg beat the Pandit/Ruiz pair 6-4 as well to put UM up 1-0.

Wiger-Nordas kept the momentum into singles, winning the first match of the day for UM on court two, a 6-4, 6-4, sweep of Maas Schotanus to increase the Griz lead to 2-0. Montana then went up 3-0 thanks to another straight-set win on court six from Johnny Wilkinson who beat Hampus Hagglund 6-3, 6-3, to make it a 3-0 match, and it looked like the route was on.

PSU had different ideas, however, when Aarjun Pandit took down Bittner on court one 6-2, 6-3, to begin the comeback attempt. They narrowed the UM lead with another win on court five when Joseph Townes fell to Ignacio Ruiz in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, to make it a 3-2 scoreline with the remaining two matches heading to a third set.

That's when McCall, trailing 3-4 in the third set, took control with his serve and called ballgame for the Griz, taking down Prino (who played No. 1 for PSU last season) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, by winning three-straight games in the final frame to clinch the team win for UM at 4-2. Upton finished the scoring for Montana, taking a third set comeback win over Cravanzola 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

"Incredible effort from Duncan. He just had positive energy and found a way to win. I'm real proud of that," added Brown.

"He's really good about backing himself. I don't think he'd found his best level, but in the end, he's the kind of guy that said 'this is my time' and he wanted it. I told him at one point it was looking like he was going to have to clinch this thing. Usually, a coach would say the opposite, but he just said 'good, that's how I want it.' Which is, to me, the mark of a guy you want in your fox hole."

Fresh off one Big Sky Conference road win the Griz now prepare to try and get another as UM heads to Moscow to take on the Idaho Vandals inside the Kibbie Dome next Friday, March 20. While in the region the Griz will also face Lewis-Clark State in their final nonconference match of the year before returning to Missoula for four-straight home league matches in April.