University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head to LA for Two Matches
1/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
After opening the spring season with a strong home win over Marquette, the 33rd-ranked Minnesota men’s tennis team will travel to Los Angeles to take part in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend later this week. The Gophers will face host UCLA, the No. 6-ranked team in the country, on Friday at 3:00 p.m. and meet either 27th-ranked Florida State or 28th-ranked Fresno State on Saturday night, depending on their Friday result.
The match against the UCLA, which will take place outdoors at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, will mark Minnesota’s first match against the Bruins all-time. The Gophers have an 0-3 ledger against Fresno State, having last played the Bulldogs in a road contest in 2004. Minnesota has lost all four times they’ve played against Florida State, but they haven’t faced the Seminoles since their season-opener in 1973.
The Gophers enter the weekend after notching their third straight season-opening win last Saturday night.
The doubles tandems of Sebastian Gallego and Phillip Arndt, Rok Bonin and Tobias Wernet, and Brendan Ruddock and Julian Dehn each posted wins over their Marquette counterparts. Bonin, Gallego, Wernet, Ruddock, and Dehn went on to win their singles matches in straight sets afterward.
UCLA opened its season with 7-0 wins over No. 38 BYU and UC-Santa Barbara. Fresno State will take a 1-0 record into Kickoff Weekend after beating in-state rival San Francisco 6-1 last week, while Florida State has already jumped out to a 4-1 start. The Seminoles were undefeated before falling to second-ranked Southern California on Wednesday.
The Gophers return from Los Angeles to play No. 25 Virginia Tech and No. 42 Boise State at the Baseline Tennis Center on Feb. 4 and 6.
Players Mentioned
