The Montana men’s tennis team will face Montana State in the annual Brawl of the Wild match on Saturday, according to an April 17 announcement. With a No. 2 seed and first-round bye already secured for next week’s conference tournament, the Grizzlies aim to build momentum as they close out their regular season.
The upcoming match holds significance for both teams as it offers a chance to strengthen their positions ahead of the Big Sky Conference tournament. While Montana has a record of 12-7 overall and 5-1 in conference play, recent wins have helped them rebound from a narrow loss to Northern Arizona that ended their hopes for a regular season title.
Montana State enters with a 7-11 overall record and sits fourth in the league after recent home victories over Sacramento State and Weber State. Despite Montana’s strong track record in this rivalry—winning 12 of the last 16 matches since 2011—the Bobcats have claimed victory in Bozeman during their last two meetings at home.
Head coach Jason Brown said, “As they should, they always make it real hostile on their rivals. It’s never an easy time winning in Bozeman. Never has been, and we’re expecting nothing less. So, we’re going to go get after it and continue to try and improve before the tournament.” He added, “One of the goals we had for the season was to get a one or a two seed. It makes it much easier for us to defend our title. We also left a lot of goals on the table, but I think we can erase anything we didn’t achieve – whether it’s a regular season title, a national ranking, or an undefeated home record – we can erase those with a win over the Bobcats and a conference title in Phoenix.”
Last year’s meeting saw Montana sweep Montana State 7-0 after mounting an impressive comeback in doubles play that set up straight-set singles victories across all courts. However, when playing at Bozeman two years ago, UM narrowly lost despite taking an early lead.
Individually, Duncan McCall recently earned his first Big Sky Player of the Week honor after leading UM to wins over Idaho State and Sacramento State by going undefeated in singles matches last weekend. Tom Bittner also returns from injury with four consecutive singles wins heading into Saturday’s contest.
Looking ahead, Montana will compete as the No. 2 seed at next week’s Big Sky tournament at Phoenix Tennis Center starting April 23.
