Griz bounce back, beat Idaho State 5-2

Friday, April 10

Missoula, Mont.

11 AM

Montana

Idaho State

4/10/2026 3:03:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team stormed back from a doubles loss and won the top four singles matches in straight sets to clinch a 5-2 Big Sky dual over Idaho State on Friday afternoon at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula.

The Griz overcame a slow start and a 0-1 deficit in the opening round to dominate the first four matches in singles, sweeping each of the top four courts in two sets apiece to secure the win at 4-1, before splitting the final two courts to make it a 5-2 final.

"I literally said one thing to the guys after doubles. I said, champions respond. You get to decide if you want to be champions this season or not, and you'll know by how you respond," said head coach Jason Brown.

"That was our worst doubles of the season by far. Just lackluster. I thought we had a good week of practice, and I don't think there was an NAU hangover, but that was as bad as we've ever played dubs. But in singles, we responded like champions."

Montana solidified its spot at No. 2 in the Big Sky Conference standings at 11-7 overall and 4-1 in league play with the win over the No. 3 Bengals. Idaho State falls to 9-9 on the season and 3-3 in conference play. With two matches left in the regular season, Montana is now in position to claim the No. 2 seed and a first round bye at the Big Sky championship tournament in Phoenix at the end of the month.

The Griz opened the match in a hole due to a slow start in the doubles round, trailing early on all three courts. The Bengals got their first win on court two, with the DeVisser/Lamothe pair beating Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg 6-2 to take the advantage.

A Griz fightback midway through the set fell short when ISU broke Montana's serve on court one to go up 5-3 while UM closed the gap on court three, trailing 4-5. Idaho State clinched the win on court one, however, with the De Pellegrin/Dalos pair pulling away 6-4 on court on over Duncan McCall and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas.

The singles round was a different story, however, after Brown lit a fire under the squad at the break.

Freshman Matt Upton showed Rafael Maya no quarter on court four, shutting the Bengal redshirt out in the first set and dropping just one game in the second in a clean 6-0, 6-1, win that knotted the team score one-all.

Not long after, Wiger-Nordas rode the momentum from an early break in the first set and held on to win the second, beating Sam Wensley 6-2, 6-4 on court three to make it a 2-1 match score, and momentum had officially flipped inside the Peak.

Bittner continued his recent improved form, picking up his third straight singles win on court one by taking down the Argentinian first-team all-conference senior 6-2, 6-3, to put the Griz within a point of a clinched victory.

That point came not long after on court two where McCall was playing up, but still managed to take down Sep DeVisser in a dominant second set, winning 6-4, 6-2, to clinch the victory for Montana at 4-1 in the team tally.

"There were a lot of coin-flip matches between our top four players. The fact Matt went out and loses just one game, and we win the rest of the matches in comprehensive straight sets, it was just a beautiful effort and a great response after a heartbreaking loss last week. So, I'm just super proud of the response from the guys," Brown added.

Joseph Townes earned Montana's fifth win of the day on court five, rebounding from a first set loss to beat Quentin Lamothe 3-6, 6-3, 1-0(4) in a third set superbreaker.

Montana now prepares to host Sacramento State in the Grizzlies' final home match of the season on Sunday, with opening serves going up at 10:30 a.m. at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula. Admission to the Peak is open to the public and free of charge.