Men’s tennis heads to Boise for spring tourney

While the Big Sky basketball world converges on Boise for its annual men's and women's championship tournaments, the Montana men's tennis team also heads to the Treasure Valley this week for some March Madness of its own.

The Griz (4-4) head Idaho as one of six participants in the Boise State Spring Invitational, a mid-season mini tournament that will give UM plenty of nonconference reps against some of the best teams in the region, plus a little Big Sky preview.

Montana will get three matches played to clinch over the course of two days of action at the Boise Racquet & Swim Club, two on Friday in Bracket A round robin play, and one on Saturday in the knockout round.

Joining UM in Bracket A is the No. 66-ranked Boise State Broncos, the defending Mountain West Champion and tournament host. The Griz will also face Idaho State in round robin play, providing a nonconference preview of the league match between the two on April 10 in Missoula.

Depending on the results of those matches Friday, the Griz will move on to face one of three opponents from the B Bracket Saturday in the first, third, or fifth-place match. Potential opponents include another Big Sky foe in Idaho (who the Griz play again in Moscow on March 20), No. 56 BYU, and No. 65 Gonzaga.

"We've got three nationally ranked teams in the field, which in our region is a really tough thing to come by. It's about as good a competition as we can find around here," said head coach Jason Brown.

"It will give us a good sense of where at but will also give us a chance to mix a few things up. We're going to try some different lineups and doubles teams to sort of cement everything before we start conference play next week in Portland. It's a great test against great competition on the road, so I'm really looking forward to it."

COVERAGE: Links to the tournament central page and live results can be found on the team's schedule page at GoGriz.com/MTEN.

THE SCHEDULE: Montana opens the tournament with a neutral site, nonconference dual against Idaho State Friday morning, with the doubles round getting underway at 10 a.m. The match will be played on courts 9-14 at the Boise Racquet & Swim Club. Later in the afternoon UM caps the day against the host Broncos, with the match getting underway at 6 p.m., also on courts 9-14.

In the knockout round Saturday, the fifth and third place matches will begin at 10 a.m., with the championship match starting at 2 p.m.

A GLIMPSE AT THE GRIZ: Montana returns to the road this week after splitting a pair of duals against North Dakota in Grand Forks last week. UM dropped its first match to the Fighting Hawks by the narrowest of margins, losing 3-4 with the deciding point coming down to a third set tiebreaker. The Griz followed that up with a momentum-building 5-2 win the following day, winning five of the six singles matches.

At 4-4 on the year, Montana, the defending Big Sky tournament champions, has been playing up this year, with three of their four losses coming against ranked opponents. That trend continues this week against Idaho State (3-6) and Boise State (9-5), with Idaho (5-8), Gonzaga (5-2), and BYU (10-1) on deck for a possible Saturday match.

The youth of the Grizzly roster has been showing its strength as UM prepares to enter the league slate. Sophomores Duncan McCall and Johnny Wilkinson are both 5-2 in singles and 4-3 as a doubles pair. Freshman Matt Upton is also starting his career on the winning foot at 5-3 in singles, while newcomer Joseph Townes, a junior, has also made an early impact at 5-1.

They'll be led in Boise by Tom Bittner and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, UM's top two players and first team all-conference standouts from a year ago that have worked their way through injury and illness this spring and are hitting their stride at the right time.

As a unit they head to Boise where the Griz thrived in the same tournament two seasons ago. This time, they'll look for the same success but will want to keep it going into the league slate.

"We played in this tournament two years ago and it was probably the peak of our season. We played really well, beat Idaho and Illinois State with a really close loss to Utah State, but we probably didn't improve from there," said Brown.

"So, we're using this weekend as a building block with the goal of playing our best tennis toward the end of the season."

UP NEXT: Montana opens conference play with a trip to Rip City next week. The Griz head to Oregon and open the two match swing with a nonconference tune-up against the University of Portland on Friday, March 13. UM then officially begins the title hunt, opening Big Sky play two days later with a league dual against Portland State on Sunday, March 15.

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Players Mentioned

Tom Bittner

Duncan McCall

Joseph Townes

Matt Upton

Baltazar Wiger-Nordas

Johnny Wilkinson

University of Montana Athletics