The Montana men’s tennis team defeated Idaho State 5-2 on Apr. 10 at the Peak Racquet Club in Missoula, overcoming an early doubles loss to win the top four singles matches in straight sets.
This victory strengthens Montana’s position in the Big Sky Conference standings, putting them at No. 2 with an overall record of 11-7 and a league record of 4-1. The result also gives Montana a chance to secure the No. 2 seed and a first-round bye at the upcoming Big Sky championship tournament in Phoenix.
Head coach Jason Brown addressed his team after their doubles defeat, saying, “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.” Brown added about their performance, “That was our worst doubles of the season by far. Just lackluster… But in singles, we responded like champions.”
After dropping all three courts early in doubles and losing on court two (6-2) and court one (6-4), Montana rallied during singles play. Freshman Matt Upton won decisively on court four with a score of 6-0, 6-1 against Rafael Maya to tie up the match score. Baltazar Wiger-Nordas followed with a win over Sam Wensley (6-2, 6-4) on court three.
Tom Bittner secured his third consecutive singles victory by defeating an Argentinian first-team all-conference senior (6-2, 6-3) on court one for Montana’s third point. Duncan McCall clinched the overall win for Montana by beating Sep DeVisser (6-4, 6-2) on court two.
Brown praised his team’s effort following last week’s close loss: “There were a lot of coin-flip matches between our top four players… 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.” Joseph Townes contributed another point for Montana with his comeback win over Quentin Lamothe (3-6, 6-3, [10]-4).
Montana will next host Sacramento State for its final home match of the season on Sunday at Peak Racquet Club starting at 10:30 a.m., with free admission open to the public.
