Griz blank Hornets 7-0 on Senior Day

Sunday, April 12

Missoula, Mont.

10:30 AM

Montana

Sacramento State

4/12/2026 3:08:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana men's tennis team took the sting out of the Sacramento State Hornets with a dominant 7-0 Big Sky Conference sweep at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula on Sunday.

The Griz picked up two quick wins in doubles to clinch the opening point and four consecutive wins in straight sets in singles to clinch the match at 4-0 before finishing off the victory7-0.

With the win, Montana improves to 12-7 and at 5-1 in Big Sky play win one match left to play has clinched the No. 2 seed and a first round bye at the conference championship tournament in Phoenix at the end of the month.

On Senior Day at the Peak, all three of Montana's seniors – Tom Bittner, Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, and Eivind Tandberg – picked up wins in singles and doubles, sending one of UM's most successful classes in program history out on a high note in the final home match of their careers.

"That felt real good to send have those guys leave the Peak behind with a lot of wins over their careers. All of them had outstanding records here and have done a lot for this program, so that part was cool," said head coach Jason Brown.

Successful at the Peak might be an understatement from Brown, who himself won the 50^th home match of his career on Sunday. The Grizzly Graduating class played a large part in almost half of those over the last four years with Bittner, Wiger-Nordas, and Tandberg moving on with a 22-6 home record as a team.

Sacramento State, meanwhile, falls to 10-11 and 1-5 in league play following the loss. The Hornets will cap their regular season on Thursday with a home dual against Portland State that is likely to decide the sixth and final seed in Phoenix.

"That was kind of a banged-up Sac State team today. They're a good team, we just happened to catch them on the end of some injuries and some illness," Brown added.

Montana got its doubles back on track with a comprehensive win, rebounding from a loss to ISU on Friday (their first over the last eight matches) to take the point from the Hornets in short order. The Griz lost just two games before clinching the point with a 6-0 win on court one and a 6-2 win on court three.

Duncan McCall and Wiger-Nordas improved to 6-1 as a pair and 3-1 together in conference action on the No. 1 court with a 6-0 shutout of Sac's Ballestero/Vlahos pair. Not long after, Matt Upton and Johnny Wilkinson clinched the point, beating the Gashi/Whitehead pair 6-2 on court three, and the Griz were off to a 1-0 lead in the team score.

"It felt good to get our mojo back in doubles. That was again about as good as we've played in dubs, so I'm going to take the Idaho State doubles loss as a one-off. That happens because it's athletics and it's not all controllable," Brown said.

It was smooth sailing most of the way from there for the Griz as Montana rolled to straight set wins on five of the six singles courts to seal the win.

Upton, who lost just a single game in a win on Friday, was dominant again against the Hornets, beating Sebastian Valhos 6-2, 6-2, in a match that lasted less than an hour to put UM up 2-0 in the team score.

McCall then claimed his third consecutive straight set win, beating David Dai on court three 6-1, 6-2, to improve to 12-5 in singles this season and 5-1 in league play, putting UM up 3-0.

The Griz clinched the team win on court one where Bittner continued his late-season form from last year's championship run with his fourth straight singles victory, taking down Freddie Healey 6-3, 6-4, to put UM up for good 4-0.

"It was another standout day from the middle of our lineup with Duncan McCall and Matt Upton, bang bang, putting us up 3-0 so quickly. It's great to have a sophomore and a freshman playing so well at the heart of the lineup. Everyone has good players up top, so those guys will be important for us going forward," added Brown.

Wiger-Nordas then added to the UM win tally with a 7-5, 7-5, win over Nick Bowles on court two before Tandberg beat Adryan Ballestero 6-3, 6-4 on court five and Moritz Lesjak took a third set tiebreaker to beat Miles Whitehead 5-7, 6-1, 1-0(6) to complete the sweep.

The win now sends Montana into the final match of the regular season with momentum, and it's a big one as UM heads to Bozeman to take on Montana State (7-11, 2-3 BSC) on Saturday, April 18, with the doubles round getting underway at 1 p.m. from the Bobcat Anderson Tennis Center.

The Griz will then head to Phoenix April 23-25 where they will seek to repeat as Big Sky tournament champions and head to the NCAA tourney for a second-straight season.