MISSOULA — Montana head men’s tennis coach Jason Brown was named the Big Sky Conference co-coach of the year as the Grizzlies cleaned up in the postseason all-conference awards with two individual award winners, the league announced Wednesday.
The Grizzlies also received a pair of first-team singles honorees, a second-team singles honoree and a doubles team also earned recognition, as voted on by the league’s coaches.
“I think these awards are incredibly reflective of the season these guys have put together, and I’m really proud of them all,” said Brown.
“I think we’ve got such a classy team, they behave themselves and compete hard in all the right ways. The fact these awards are voted on by other coaches shows they respect these guys, respect what they’re doing and how they’ve handled their business this year. I’m really proud of that.”
Brown, now 94-66 overall and 36-22 in Big Sky play with a stellar 44-7 home record in his eighth year at UM, earned his second coach of the year award after leading the Griz to the most wins in program history and a second-place finish in the conference standings this season.
His Grizzlies head to the Big Sky championship tournament in Phoenix this week with a 16-6 overall record, a mark currently tied with the 2012 team’s program record 16-win season. Montana is the No. 3 seed at the tourney after finishing the year at 6-2 in league play, capping the regular season with a pair of 7-0 shutout wins over rivals Eastern Washington and Montana State.
Brown shared coach of the year honors with Northern Arizona’s Maciej Bogusz, who led the Lumberjacks to an undefeated conference season at 8-0 in league play.
“I’m super grateful to receive that. I think Maciej at NAU does an amazing job and sets the standard in our conference year in and year out. So, to share an award with him sort of means even more than getting it on my own. So, I’m happy about that and it’s a cool thing to share with the guy who went undefeated with his squad this year,” Brown added.
Montana landed another of the league’s individual awards with Duncan McCall becoming the program’s first Big Sky freshman of the year award recipient after combining for 29 total wins between singles and doubles, where he also earned all-conference honors.
“He’s been as hard a worker as I've ever had as a freshman. He really pushes himself to that level and I never have to push him. He’s the first freshman of the year in our program’s history, so the future looks bright for Griz tennis,” said Brown.
The Grizzlies also had a pair of first-team all-conference singles players with Tom Bittner and Baltazar Wiger-Nordas taking two of the six first-team spots. It’s the first time Montana has had two first-team selections since 2018 when Yannick Schmidl and Victor Casadevall doubled up and the Griz advanced to the tournament final.
Bittner was a unanimous first-team singles selection for the second straight year, overcoming physical issues early in the year to go 12-5 overall and 6-2 in conference play with six straight wins. He was named Big Sky player of the week in back-to-back weeks this season after clinching a rare Grizzly victory on the road at Weber State in a tiebreaker and going undefeated in a weekend sweep of Portland State and Idaho.
Wiger-Nordas has also made a major impact for Montana this season as one of the winningest players in the league. The Norwegian enters the tourney at 12-5 overall and 10-3 on court two — the most wins at that position in the conference to date. He was a second-team all-conference pick as a sophomore last year, as well. He and Bittner have also been honored together for their academics as last year’s co-winners of UM’s President’s Award, given to the student-athlete with the top overall GPA in Grizzly Athletics.
“Both battled through different things, Tommy through his injury, and Balty had some wavering emotions throughout the season, and overcame them and got themselves into a great spot, physically and mentally. To dominate at the top is really hard to do, so I’m proud of them both,” said Brown.
McCall landed on the second-team all-conference singles team after going 15-5 overall and 6-2 in conference play in his freshman year. He primarily played on court three for the Griz, going 11-3 this season — the best mark in the league at that position.
He and his doubles partner, fellow freshman Johnny Wilkinson, also teamed up to go 14-7 overall and 4-3 in conference play (the most overall victories in the league) to earn a doubles honorable mention.
“Second-team honors for our freshman of the year is really a cool recognition, and I’m proud that both of those guys were recognized,” said Brown.
“I thought it was neat the two freshmen playing at three doubles got some recognition. I think they played doubles the right way, and an honorable mention shows we can expect for big things in the future.”
Montana is set to face Sacramento State in the first round of the Big Sky tournament in Phoenix on Thursday.
2025 Big Sky men’s tennis award winners
MVP: Dani Torres, Northern Arizona*
Freshman of the year: Duncan McCall, Montana
Co-coach of the year: Jason Brown, Montana/Maciej Bogusz, Northern Arizona
* - unanimous selection
All-Big Sky singles first team
Dani Torres, Northern Arizona*
Tom Bittner, Montana*
Henry Lamchinniah, Sacramento State*
Valentino De Pellegrin, Idaho State*
Baltazar Wiger-Nordas, Montana
Semen Agynskyy, Northern Arizona
* - unanimous first-team selection
All-Big Sky singles second team
Sebastian Medica, Idaho
Duncan McCall, Montana
Jakub Volesky, Northern Arizona
Ken Minh, Weber State
Piotr Galus, Northern Arizona
Tyler Waddock, Eastern Washington
All-Big Sky singles honorable mention
Luka Vujacic, Idaho State
Francisco Gay, Idaho
Dmitry Bezborodov, Montana State
Martin Duris, Sacramento State
Chetanna Amadike, Idaho
Honorable mention must receive at least 3 votes
All-Big Sky doubles first team
Dani Torres/Piotr Galus, Northern Arizona*
Connor Kruger/Ken Minh, Weber State
Jowan Rawson/Quentin Lamothe, Idaho State
* - unanimous first-team selection
All-Big Sky doubles second team
Francisco Gay/Yu Shun Lai, Idaho
Victor Sklenka/Valentino De Pellegrin, Idaho State
Sebastian Medica/Chetanna Amadike, Idaho^
Tristan Sarap/William Zulch, Weber State^
^ - four teams honored due to tie
All-Big Sky doubles honorable mention
Duncan McCall/Johnny Wilkinson, Montana
Honorable mention must receive at least 3 votes
