University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
ITA National Indoors
Weber Finishes Second at Lakewood
11/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Ruben Weber advanced to the finals at the Lakewood Ranch Invitational to finish second place while Matic Spec and Felix Corwin picked up a consolation win in doubles at the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships as the Gophers closed out their fall with two different tournaments.
"I am really happy I could end my individual tournament career with a final and get a trophy," Weber said.
In a draw with 20 of the best doubles pairings across the nation this fall, Corwin and Spec took a close loss to start off the NIIC . They squared off against Romain Bogaerts and Maksim Kan (Wake Forest) and after winning the first set 6-4 they dropped the second 6-0. All momentum seemed to be out of their favor as they went down 7-2 before coming back to make it 7-6. They eventually fell 10-6 to drop the match.
The sophomore duo picked it back up with a (6-3, 6-3) win over Luiz Pinto and Christian Coetzee (UAB) in the consolation round before taking a (6-3, 6-4) loss against 3 Henry Craig and Alex Gasson (Denver). They end the fall 6-2 in doubles play.
Weber along with Jeremy Lynn and freshmen Justyn Levin and Marino Alpeza competed at Lakewood Ranch, Fla. Only Weber got out of the main draw first round with a victory in singles. The doubles tandems of Weber/Levin and Lynn/Alpeza both fell in the first round.
There was no consolation round in doubles while none of the other three players picked up a singles win in consolation.
It was a strong showing for Weber who came in as the No. 4 seed. He advanced all the way to finals with four victories. In the round of 32 he topped Sam Chaffin (6-3, 6-2), Bernard Tefel (6-3, 6-0), Alex Gornet (7-6 (5) 4-6, 6-2) and Carter Lin (6-2, 6-2) before falling in the finals to Max Andrews out of Miami (6-4, 6-4). Weber ends the fall with a team best 7-3 singles record.
The Gophers have some positives to build off of as they go into dual match season starting in the middle of January after losing half their Big Ten Championship team from a year ago. Weber believes the team can get to the level they need to be at come spring season.
"All the team needs to do is keep up the work ethics in practice to have a great season in the spring."
Players Mentioned
