Griz hold strong, beat Cats in Bozeman to cap regular season

Saturday, April 18

Bozeman, Mont.

1 PM

Montana

Montana State

Griz hold strong, beat Cats in Bozeman to cap regular season

4/18/2026 6:34:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

At one point, it looked like the momentum the Griz had built was fading away along with their hopes of beating the Cats in Bozeman.

Riding high after a win in doubles, another sweep for Matt Upton and dramatic first set wins on the top three courts, it appeared the Montana men's tennis team was cruising to a Brawl of the Wild victory over Montana State at the Bobcat Anderson Tennis Center on Saturday.

But with UM needing just two more team points to clinch, the Cats swiped back, taking second sets on all three of remaining courts, sending each to a deciding third set, and putting what looked like a sure thing for the Griz up for grabs.

Like he has throughout his career though, senior Tom Bittner said "not on my watch" and dominated his third set to shift the momentum back for Montana, and the Griz would eventually come away with a 5-2 win in front of a hostile Bobcat crowd.

With its third-straight win, Montana improves to 13-7 overall and 6-1 in Big Sky play at the end of the regular season as the Griz now turn their attention toward Phoenix and defending their conference title next week. The win also snaps a two-match losing streak for UM in Bozeman and improves the Grizzly record over the Cats in the last decade-plus 13-4.

The loss – just the second at home for the Bobcats all year – puts MSU at 7-12 on the year and 3-4 in league play and will take the No. 5 seed at the championship tourney.

"They put up a real hostile environment, real rowdy fans, all the things the rivalry match should be, so good on them. But we were able to drain a lot of the energy out of the building and a lot of fans left. It felt great," said head coach Jason Brown.

"We got up a doubles point and one match quickly and had first sets on all the other matches, but like a tough conference opponent and an in-state rival, they made a nice comeback to switch the momentum. But the guys at the top of the lineup we've counted on all year stepped up and won third sets convincingly. They removed all the doubt."

Montana's doubles, a strength of the team in the tail end of the season now with nine wins in the last 10 matches, again put Montana out on the front foot and negated the crowd support.

Duncan McCall and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas totally overpowered the Stweart/Biss pair 6-1 on court one to get the Griz rolling before seniors Bittner and Eivind Tandberg closed out the round with a 6-4 win over the Chantron/Ismanescu pair to put UM up 1-0 in the team score.

Moving into singles, Upton, a freshman who has held down court four in his first season in maroon and silver, rolled to his fourth straight-set win in his last five outings, dominating Camille Chantron 6-2, 6-3, and just like that the Griz were out to a 2-0 lead.

"Matt has been dominant at four in the conference. Just nails. Just a relentless force. I'm really proud of what a hardworking and coachable kid he is," said Brown.

But after the Griz won first sets on courts one through three, Montana State began their fightback with each of the second sets going the way of the Bobcats and Wiger-Nordas losing on court two, and it looked like the match was far from over for UM.

That's when Bittner put the team on his back and refused to lose, blanking Yassin Elaroussy in the third set to claim his fifth straight win 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, and momentum was back with Montana.

McCall, the defending Big Sky Player of the Week, was equally impressive in his third set. The sophomore had already claimed a first set tiebreaker after trailing 5-2, and when it mattered most in the third, he delivered the clinch for the Griz, rebounding to beat Ethan Masselis 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-2, and the Griz sealed the win at 4-1.

Johnny Wilkinson delivered the final blow for UM, beating Max Calaquian in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, to make it a 5-2 final score.

Montana now heads to Phoenix as the No. 2 seed and will receive a first-round bye at the conference tournament, taking on the remaining highest seed in the second round the morning of Friday, April 24.

"In duals like this when you start putting up a big lead, you really put the squeeze on the other team and life is good.," added Brown.

"So, I'm really excited about the momentum we'll be taking to Phoenix."