University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Big Green Invite
Rincon Shines At Big Green
11/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Seven Gophers have finished their fall season after competing at the Big Green Invite at Dartmouth this past weekend.
Minnesota took on Dartmouth, Denver and UMass at the tournament in a dual match style setup. While Minnesota only scored two wins between singles and doubles against Dartmouth to start the weekend they finished strong picking up seven wins over UMass and four hard fought wins over Denver.
"It was a great weekend overall," Coach Chuck Merzbacher said. "We played with seven out of our 10 players including all three freshmen and everyone stepped up. We really showed our depth, talent and versatility through the weekend."
No player had a stronger weekend than Paula Rincon-Otero who went 3-0 in singles and 2-1 in doubles and has now won five out of her last six singles matches to end the fall 5-2 overall. She was one of five players named to the Big Green All-Tournament team.
"Paula came in determined and it showed," Merzbacher said.
"It was a great way to finish my last fall tournament," Rincon Otero said. "The dual matches really got us ready for the upcoming season and I could not be more excited."
To start the weekend Minnesota took on a tough Dartmouth team. Rincon-Otero got the lone singles victory in a hard fought (7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (3)) match over Allison Chuang.
Julia Courter, Annemarie Emme and Camila Vargas Gomez all had close losses. Emme teamed up with fellow freshman Caitlyn Merzbacher for a 8-7 (3) win in doubles over Taylor Ng and Chuang.
The Maroon and Gold had their strongest showing of the weekend on Saturday when they took on players from UMass. Courter picked up another singles victory as she continues to try and climb into the top 20 all-time in career singles wins now with 68 total victories in her career.
Emme picked up a victory and finds herself with a 6-6 singles record after fall play. Vargas Gomez notched another one in the win column to move to 7-5 after her first fall season.
Three doubles tandems picked up wins against UMass including Merzbacher and Jessika Mozia who are 5-1 after the fall season. Rincon-Otero paired up with Vargas Gomez for a win while Courter and Emme also grabbed a victory on the day.
Rincon-Otero and Vargas Gomez got the lone doubles win against Denver while Mozia, Merzbacher and Rincon all recorded singles wins.
Caroline Ryba, Mehvish Safdar and Maja Vujic will head to the Thunderbird Invitational next weekend to conclude their fall seasons.
All features and recaps on the team can be found on the social media accounts-Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @gopherwtennis.
Players Mentioned
