Griz fall to Bengals in semifinal heartbreaker

Friday, April 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

9 AM (MT)

Montana

Idaho State

4/24/2026 4:58:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score

By: Montana Sports Information

PHOENIX - The cliché says it's a game of inches. The reality, however, is that tennis is a game of centimeters. If a ball traveling at over 100 miles per hour is outside the line by even a hair, it's out. End of story.

Missed centimeters here and there were story for the Montana men's tennis team on Friday as the No. 2 seed Grizzlies bowed out of the Big Sky Conference championship tournament with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the No. 3 seed Idaho State Bengals in the semifinal.

ISU got the better of the Griz in the third meeting of the year between the squads after splitting the previous two encounters. Montana now finishes the season at 13-8 on the year and 6-1 in conference play, while ISU improved to 12-9 and 4-3 in league play, and will play Northern Arizona in the championship match on Saturday morning.

Montana started slow with a loss in the doubles round but took wins on three of the top four singles courts to put themselves in with a shot at moving on as three matches went into a third set.

With the dual tied 3-3, Grizzly sophomore Duncan McCall – one of UM's most reliable winners this season with the team's best singles record – was serving for match point, up 5-4 in a third set dog fight with ISU's Sep de Visser on court two when the Bengal sophomore started firing bullets with his powerful backhand.

To counter, McCall went to his body side, but as the pressure mounted, more bullets started finding their targets for de Visser than McCall and the Bengal broke McCall's serve to tie the set at five-all. With that momentum in hand de Visser served out the 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 win and the Bengals punched their ticket to the championship round.

"It's a game of inches. We had match point to move forward but it didn't go our way. We missed our spot on serve here and there. One more point goes our way and we're through to the final, but that's sports," said head coach Jason Brown.

"Those guys fought hard. It's a very competitive conference, so congrats to Idaho State. They left it all out there."

Doubles had been a strong suit for the Griz in the back half of the season, but Idaho State proved to be their Achillies heel as the Bengals became the only team to beat UM in the round in the last 10 duals of the year.

Grizzly seniors Tom Bittner and Eivind Tandberg went down in short order to ISU's de Visser/Lamothe pair 6-1 on court three, and the Bengals clinched the opening point when the ISU senior De Pellegrin/Dalos duo took down McCall and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas 6-3 on court one to give the opening point to Idaho State.

"Once again against ISU we weren't sharp in doubles. It's been such a great thing for us this season, but we put ourselves in a deficit," added Brown.

Soon after the doubles loss Montana was right back in it, however, when freshman Matt Upton rolled to yet another straight set win on singles court four to tie the team score 1-1. Upton caps an impressive freshman season having won five of his last six matches in straight sets and will take a 13-6 overall singles record into his sophomore year.

The Griz then took the lead when Bittner held off a strong push from Valentno De Pellegrin on court one, winning a set one tiebreaker 7-6 and sealing the victory with a 6-4 win in the second set.

Bittner, this year's Big Sky MVP, now concludes his senior year as one of the best to ever do it at UM, recovering from injury to win his last six consecutive matches at the business end of the season, and capping his career with a 45-24 overall singles record and a 20-10 Big Sky record as UM's top line player for the last three seasons.

"I'm devastated for Tom Bittner, He put together probably the greatest tennis career in Montana history, and it was sad to see it end today. He did his part with a nice win at one," said Brown.

After Bittner's win, ISU leveled the score again on court five where Luka Vujacic knocked off UM sophomore Moritz Lesjak in a first set tiebreaker and went on to claim a 7-6, 6-2, win that made it a 2-2 dual.

Then it was another Grizzly senior who put Montana back in the lead on court three when Wiger-Nordas rallied from a first set loss to beat Hayden Ciguenza 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, and the Griz were on the front foot, up 3-2 and McCall leading on court two.

ISU again tied it up, however, when Rafael Maya bounced back from a second set loss to UM's Joseph Townes to beat the Grizzly junior 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, and knot the overall score 3-3 with McCall's match on two coming down to the wire.

The third set heroics were not to be for McCall, however, as the Bengals advanced to the final round and will play their third-straight dual in as many days in the title match against NAU on Saturday.

The loss puts an end to an otherwise historic season for UM that saw Brown get named the Big Sky MVP for a second straight year, Bittner become one of just three players in UM history to win conference MVP, and a litany of Grizzlies populated the all-conference squads.

"This one really stings. We put together a squad that could definitely defend its title, but I'm sad for the boys that we're not going to get that chance tomorrow. The three seniors left this program better than they found it. I think our level is better, I think our expectations are higher, and I think the future of Griz tennis is bright moving forward with Duncan McCall and Matt Upton," added Brown.

"The only thing worse than losing is not getting to play again tomorrow, so I'm glad we got to get out here and compete one last time together."