University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Open Big Ten Play Friday With Iowa
2/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Minnesota will return to action at the Baseline Tennis Center this weekend to match-up with three opponents. The Gophers take on conference foe Iowa on Friday night, and then a pair of non-conference matches with Princeton and Carleton College on Sunday.
The Gophers, ranked 55th nationally, will be coming back home after they had a split last weekend beating Oregon and falling to the high-powered Huskies of Washington. Minnesota took down the 73rd ranked Ducks of Oregon by a score of 4-3 with Freshman Doron Muravnik winning the deciding game in dramatic fashion holding on after facing four straight match points over Patricia Skowronski 6-7, 6-2, 7-5. Alexa Palen was the sole victor for the Gophers against 19th-ranked Washington, as she took down Lina Xu 6-0, 6-2 at No. 3 singles.
This weekend, the Gophers will face Iowa on Friday night at 6 p.m. and are hoping to change their recent history with the Hawkeyes, having lost their last six meetings. The last time the Gophers were able to top Iowa was on March 8, 2003 at Iowa. The Hawkeyes come to Minnesota with a 5-1 record for the season and have the 87th-ranked player in the country in Sonja Molnar. This fall Molnar fell to Minnesota's Tijana Koprivica at the Gopher Invitational by a score of 7-6, 6-3 in the second round of the tournament. The Gophers still hold a 31-21 all-time record over Iowa entering the match-up on Friday.
On Sunday they will face two non-conference opponents in Princeton and Carleton. The match with Princeton starts at 11 a.m. and the contest with Carleton begins at 4 p.m.
Princeton comes to the Baseline Tennis Center ranked 44th in the country and coming off a strong 4-3 victory over 20th ranked Vanderbilt last Saturday. They continued in that fashion over Syracuse on Sunday, beating the Orange 6-1. The Gophers and Tigers have played once previously with Princeton posting an 8-1 victory in San Diego on March 21, 1991. Princeton is 6-3 this season.
Minnesota will then face the Division III Carleton Knights to cap off the weekend. The Gophers hold a perfect 10-0 record over the Knights all-time. Carleton is ranked 28th in Division III this season holding a 4-0 record this season. The Knights' coach Luciano Battaglini has some history with Minnesota as an assistant coach for four seasons spanning from 2003-2007.
