Grand Forks, N.D. - The North Dakota men's tennis team was defeated by the Montana Grizzlies by a score of 6-1 on Friday afternoon at the Choice Health and Fitness Center.

"I think we showed a lot of progress today," Head Coach Tom Wynne said. "Montana might be the best team in the conference and we were able to push them in several positions."

The Grizzlies earned the doubles point, winning two of the three matches. North Dakota's lone victory came from the duo of junior Ryan McGuigan (Fargo, N.D.) and junior Grant Bakke (Bismarck, N.D.) who defeated Montana's Eric Braun and Semion Branzburg by a score of 8-5.

Montana continued to play strong in singles action by winning the first five matches. In No. 5 singles, Bakke lost his first set to Braun by a score of 7-6 and rallied in the second set to take a 6-4 victory. Bakke proceeded to win a tight third set with a 7-6 score to conclude the mach.

The victory marked North Dakota's first singles match victory in the Big Sky Conference.

"Hopefully that will be a sign of things to come and we can keep doing things like that," coach Wynne said of Bakke's win.

North Dakota will host Northern Arizona in a Big Sky Conference matchup on Saturday, March 23 at 9 a.m. at Choice Health and Fitness Center.

Montana 6, North Dakota 1

Singles competition

1. WARREN, Andrew (UM) def. OOTHOUDT, Josh (UND_M) 6-1, 6-3

2. FACEY, Michael (UM) def. MCGUIGAN, Ryan (UND_M) 6-3, 6-2

3. VAUGHN, Ethan (UM) def. OBERLE, Conner (UND_M) 6-4, 6-1

4. BRANZBURG, Semion (UM) def. LEE, Joe (UND_M) 6-1, 6-1

5. BAKKE, Grant (UND_M) def. BRAUN, Eric (UM) 6-7, 6-4, 7-6

6. DROST, Zach (UM) def. BIERNAT, Will (UND_M) 6-3, 6-3

Doubles competition

1. WARREN, Andrew/VAUGHN, Ethan (UM) def. OOTHOUDT, Josh/OBERLE, Conner (UND_M) 8-3

2. MCGUIGAN, Ryan/BAKKE, Grant (UND_M) def. BRAUN, Eric/BRANZBURG, Semion (UM) 8-5

3. FACEY, Michael/DROST, Zach (UM) def. VIGEN, Jared/BERGSTROM, David (UND_M) 8-1