University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Open 2015 at Home
1/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Live Scoring | Match Day Program
The 2015 Minnesota women's tennis season gets underway Sunday when it plays two matches at the Baseline Tennis Center. The Gophers will face two teams that visited Minneapolis in the fall for the Gopher Invitational--they play Milwaukee at 10 a.m. before taking on North Dakota at 4 p.m.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS
Defending Horizon League champion Milwaukee defeated a program-record 13 Division I opponents and recorded a school-record eight-match win streak last year. From that squad, Milwaukee lost just one player, Kristin Kurer. Kurer went 17-3 in her final year and set a school record for career singles wins with 90. Returning are seniors Christina Colarossi and Chelsea Bailey, who were Nos. 2 and 3 respectively in 2014.
ABOUT NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota enters the 2015 season following a 2014 campaign in which it finished with a 6-13 record, including a 4-7 Big Sky ledger. UND fared much better at home than on road last year, registering a 5-2 mark in Grand Forks, while going 0-10 on the road. North Dakota lost Stephanie Petsis, who played 18 matches at the top singles spot last year, but returns No. 2 singles player Callie Ronkowski, who finished at 11-7 in the spring.
UP AND COMING
Minnesota will look to improve upon a successful 2014 campaign. Last year, the Gophers posted their highest win total since 2003 at 17 and recorded their highest conference win total since the same year with six. After beginning last season unranked, the Maroon and Gold climbed as high at 55th en route to a seven-win improvement from the previous season. This season, the Maroon and Gold begins the year at No. 71 in the national rankings.
HOT STARTS
The Gophers have won their first two matches in each of the last three seasons, including Chuck Merzbacher's first two seasons as the team's head coach. Last year, the team opened with dominating wins over Eastern Michigan and Northern Iowa before later running its record to 4-0 for the first time since 1997.
TOUGH AT HOME
The Baseline Tennis Center has been a tough place to play for visitors over the past two seasons. The Gophers are 17-8 at home under Chuck Merzbacher, including 8-3 last year. On the road, the Gophers were 0-8 in 2013, but improved to 7-2 last year. Minnesota's first road match of 2015 comes Jan. 24 at No. 4-ranked North Carolina.
RETURNING TALENT
Minnesota lost three-time All-Big Ten selection Natallia Pintusava, as well as Yuliana Umanets and Pauline Gilbert, but returns several key players from a year ago. All-conference honoree Tereza Brichacova won 10 singles matches at the No. 1 position last year. The senior Czech Republic native is one of three Gophers entering the spring with 50 or more career singles wins (53). That list also includes Aria Lambert (62) and Jessika Mozia (53). Julia Courter is one victory shy of that milestone.
HOW THE SCORING WORKS
No-ad scoring will be used in both singles and doubles. Three doubles matches will be played to begin the dual. Each match is one set to six, with a tie-break at six-all. The first team to earn two doubles wins earns one team point. Doubles play will followed by six singles matches (best two of three sets--tie-breaks at six-all). Each singles match is worth one team point.
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Players Mentioned
