Shorthanded Griz go 1-2 at BSU spring tourney

Friday, March 6

Boise, Idaho

10 AM

Montana

Idaho State

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

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke / University of Montana

3/7/2026 5:58:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Box Score 3

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team battled three of the top teams in the region on top of battling food poisoning and injuries within the squad yet still managed to finish fifth at the Boise State Spring Invitational over the weekend.

The undermanned Griz dropped a 2-4 nonconference nailbiter to Idaho State in the first match of the tournament on Friday morning before falling to No. 66 Boise State 0-4 in the nightcap. Montana finished the tourney on a high note, cobbling together a partial lineup and defeating Idaho 4-3 in a nonconference dual to go 1-2 in the Treasure Valley.

Montana moves to 5-6 on the season and now prepares to enter the Big Sky Conference portion of the schedule on a high note.

"We got derailed by injury and illness this weekend unfortunately, so we have to get our bodies right," said head coach Jason Brown.

"But we talked about the college tennis season being broke into three different seasons. We wanted to gain momentum and get nationally ranked in the first season. We've battled through some things and didn't manage to do that. Now the second season is the Big Sky Conference schedule which starts next week, and if we qualify, the Big Sky tournament is the third. This team really wants to put itself in position to repeat as champions, and that's what we are going to try to do starting in Portland next Sunday."

Montana started the tournament on a high note, winning the doubles point in the first match of the weekend against Idaho State. The Bengals would claw back, however, in a singles round that saw four of the six matches go into a third set.

ISU won three-straight matches to reclaim the lead 3-1 with three courts still in play. Grizzly No. 1 Tom Bittner closed the gap with a three-set win over fellow first team all-conference player Valentine De Pellegrin in the top line position, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, to make the team score 2-3.

After UM's Baltazar Wiger-Nordas won the first set over Sep de Visser, the Bengal bounced back to clinch the match for ISU on court two in a 6-7 (5), 6-5, 7-5, marathon.

As the injuries and illness started to take their toll, nationally ranked Boise State (the defending Mountain West champ) made quick work of UM in a 4-0 sweep Friday night. The Broncos opened with two wins to clinch the doubles. In singles, Bittner earned a first set win over Avery Tallakson on court one but was unable to complete the match.

Johnny Wilkinson made his career debut on court two after going the distance in three sets that morning, pushing his first set to a tiebreaker but eventually falling to Stewart Aronson 7-6(1), 6-1. Matt Upton and Eivind Tandberg also came out on the wrong end of their matches on courts four and six to give the Broncos the victory.

In the fifth-place match on Saturday morning, the Griz started from behind with only five players physically able to compete, leading UM to forfeit on doubles court three and singles court six and putting the Vandals in the drivers seat from the start.

Duncan McCall and Matt Upton earned a shut-out win in doubles on court two, but a Vandal win on court one and the default on court three put Idaho up 1-0 in the early going.

In singles, Idaho again took a default win on court six to go up 2-0 in the team score before the round even started. The Griz would go on to win four of the five singles matches, completing the comeback 4-3 and taking a win home with them from Boise.

Upton and McCall each completed the sweep that day with straight set wins on court three and two, respectively, with Upton beating Gabriel Moroder 6-2, 6-2, and McCall winning a first set tiebreaker to beat Mikolaj Lis 7-5(5), 6-2.

Joseph Townes then ground out a third set win to beat Valentin Glasl 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, before Moritz Lesjak won a bounce-back three-setter of his own on court five over Noe De Col 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to clinch the Grizzly team victory.

UP NEXT: Montana travels to Oregon for a pair of matches. The Griz open the trip in a nonconference tussle with the University of Portland on March 13 before opening Big Sky play at Portland State on March 15. UM then faces Idaho in the conference dual between the Griz and Vandals five days later on March 20 in Moscow.