University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Host Purdue, Travel to Indiana
4/16/2015 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Live Scoring (Indoors)Â |
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota women's tennis team ends its regular season this weekend with matches against Purdue and Indiana. The Gophers will host the No. 34 Boilermakers for their Senior Day Friday at 2:15 p.m. and will travel to Bloomington, Ind. to face the No. 48 Hoosiers Sunday at 9:30 a.m. CT.
ABOUT THE BOILERMAKERS
No. 34 Purdue enters Friday's match with a 12-6 record, including a 5-4 mark in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers are 4-4 in road matches. Daniela Vidal has earned a spot atop PU's singles lineup, going 11-7 at No. 1. She is 14-7 overall on the 2014-15 season. In doubles, No. 88-ranked Vidal and Tess Bernard-Feigenbaum are 12-5 together, including an 8-4 dual-match ledger at the top position.
ABOUT THE HOOSIERS
After capping its regular-season road schedule at Wisconsin Friday, 48th-ranked Indiana will host the Gophers in its final home match. The Hoosiers are 5-4 in conference play and are 9-3 in home matches. Katie Klyczek is IU's No. 1 singles player with a 12-9 record at the top spot. Alecia Kauss has the same record in the second flight Indiana has had six different tandems play at No. 1 doubles. The pairing of Shannon Murdy and Stephanie Smith is 13-6 on the spring.
AGAINST THE OPPONENTS
Minnesota is 26-17 against Purdue and 8-33 against Indiana, all-time. Last year, the Gophers lost to Purdue, 4-3, but defeated the Hoosiers, 5-2, at the Baseline Tennis Center.
SENIOR SALUTE
Minnesota seniors Tereza Brichacova and Aria Lambert will play their final dual match at the Baseline Tennis Center Friday against Purdue. Brichacova was an All-Big Ten selection as a junior and has compiled 60 singles wins and 59 doubles victories, serving as the team's primary No. 1 singles player for two seasons. Lambert has been a mainstay in the lineup throughout her career and has amassed 78 singles wins.
LAMBERT MOVING UP
Senior Aria Lambert has won 13 of her last 17 singles matches and is 16-6 on the spring at four different positions. The Deephaven, Minn. native now has 78-career singles wins to her credit, the 10th-most in program history. She also hit the 20-win plateau for the third time with a straight-set defeat of Nebraska's Katerina Matysova last Sunday.
A GOOD PARTNER
Redshirt junior Julia Courter has stood out in doubles this season. She is 21-8 on the season with a 16-5 mark in the spring, playing alongside classmates Paula Rincon-Otero and Jessika Mozia. With a 6-3 win over South Dakota's Tacy Haws-Lay and Beatriz Souza alongside Mozia earlier in the year, Courter hit the 50-career win plateau in doubles. Now at 59-career singles wins, she is nationally ranked with Rincon-Otero.
POSITIVE FIRST IMPRESSION
Freshman Caroline Ryba has been one of the top players on Minnesota's team this season. A recent six-match winning streak and wins against opponents from Rutgers, Maryland and Iowa at the No. 2 position helped push the Glenview, Ill. native's spring record to 13-6.
UP AND COMING
The 2015 edition of the Gopher women's tennis team has been building upon a successful 2014 campaign. Last year, the Gophers posted their highest win total since 2003 at 17. 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 began the year at No. 71.Â
HOW THE SCORING WORKS
For Big Ten play, three doubles matches will be played to begin the dual. Each match is a one-game pro set to eight, with a tiebreak at seven-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. Traditional (ad) scoring is in effect for conference play.
###
Players Mentioned
