University of Minnesota Athletics
Season in Review: 2014-15
6/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Video by Student Assistant Coach Juan Pablo Ramirez
Final Team Records and Results
The Minnesota men's tennis team had a memorable season in 2014-15. The Gophers made a 10-win improvement from their 2014 campaign, had several notable accomplishments and finished the season ranked 21st, their highest finish in the ITA National Rankings since 2003.
CLASS OF THE CONFERNECE
By going 10-1 in Big Ten play, the Gophers claimed a share of their first regular-season conference title since 1995. After a 5-0 start in league play, the Maroon and Gold dropped a 4-2 decision to Ohio State on the road. Following road wins against Penn State, Michigan and Michigan State, Minnesota faced the tough task of defeating third-ranked Illinois and No. 27 Northwestern to clinch a share of the title.
In front of a raucous crowd at the Baseline Tennis Center against Illinois, the Gophers won in the top two doubles positions and received singles victories from Jack Hamburg and Matic Spec to get to three team points. With the score knotted at three, Mathieu Froment fended off two match points and won 7-2 in a third-set tiebreaker to secure the upset win.
The Gophers capped their championship run by downing NU, taking the doubles point and again getting singles wins from Spec at No. 2 and Hamburg at No. 5. With the match tied, 3-3, Felix Corwin rallied from a one-set deficit at No. 4 for a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory, sealing the championship.
BRINGING HOME THE HARDWARE
In addition to winning the conference title as a team, several Minnesota men's tennis players and coaches excelled on a personal level.
All-American Leandro Toledo was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and received a fourth-straight first-team all-conference honor, making him the first player in program history to garner four all-league nods. Head coach Geoff Young was named the conference's coach of the year and Matic Spec also earned a First Team All-Big Ten selection.
The team went on to add four ITA regional honors. Toledo was the ITA Central Region Most Improved Senior Player of the Year, while Spec was the region's rookie of the year. Young added the a region coach of the year plaudit and associate head coach Urban Ljubic was named the ITA Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year.
Toledo was the Big Ten Athlete of the Week three times--no other student-athlete in the conference earned the honor more than once--and Spec received the conference's final weekly accolade of the season. Both Toledo and Spec were included in the final national singles rankings. Toledo checked in at No. 33, while Spec was 68th. Jack Hamburg and Mathieu Froment were No. 36 as a doubles pairing.
POSTSEASON PLAY
A conference title earned Minnesota a bye through the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in Urbana, Ill. The Gophers then defeated Michigan for the third time in as many matches against the Wolverines on the year to move on the to semifinal round, where they fell to perennial power Ohio State.
Minnesota was sent to Charlottesville, Va. to compete in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed. The Gophers defeated Princeton to reached the tournament's second round for the fourth time in the last seven years, but fell to regional host and eventual national champion Virginia the following day. They finished the season at 21-8, giving them their highest win total in 12 years.
Following the national team tournament, Leandro Toledo became the fifth player in school history to make his second appearance in the NCAA Singles Tournament. He fell to Harvard's Denis Nguyen in the round of 64.
SOLID FOUNDATION
A successful spring season was preceded by many fall triumphs. Minnesota's fall season was highlighted by Leandro Toledo's second-career qualification for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. First, he reached the round of 16 at the ITA All-American Championships by upsetting 13th-ranked Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA and downing No. 58 Andreas Bjerrehus of Virginia Tech. He also reached the singles final at the ITA Central Region Championships.
Jack Hamburg and Mathieu Froment also competed at the All-American Championships in both singles and doubles. As a duo they won an epic 3-6, 7-6 (19), 1-0 (1) contest against No. 28 Jordan Angus and Filip Vittek of San Diego State before coming up short against the nation's top-ranked tandem of Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese of Tennessee.
Minnesota's freshman class of Felix Corwin and Matic Spec also broke out in the fall. Their 2014 concluded when they met in the singles championship at the Big Ten Indoors at the Baseline Tennis Center. Corwin prevailed without dropping a set in the tournament to become the school's first winner of the event since 2003. Corwin and Spec went on to combine for a 59-11 singles record in 2014-15.
RARE FEATS
The Gophers were not an easy team to beat, but that fact was especially true at home. Minnesota went 12-0 at the Baseline Tennis Center with wins over eight ranked opponents--including top-25 teams Oklahoma State, Drake and Illinois.
As a team, the Gophers dispatched 12 ranked foes, but five different players on the team took down ranked singles opponents. Against players in the nation's top 125 in singles, Leandro Toledo won nine matches, while Jack Hamburg and Matic Spec won four times apiece. Mathieu Froment and Ruben Weber each won once. Hamburg and Froment also defeated six ranked doubles teams, while Toledo and Felix Corwin won their lone match against a top-90 duo.
Toledo and Spec finished the year at the team's 1-2 punch in singles for good reason. At 19-8, Toledo had the most wins at the No. 1 spot for a Gopher since 1994. He finished his career with 97 singles wins, the ninth-most in school history. Spec, who started the season playing five of his first six singles matches at the No. 5 spot, finished the year on a 14-match win streak and became the team's first player since 2003 to hit the 30-win plateau, going 31-5.
At 25-7, Corwin tied for the seventh-most doubles wins in a single season in program history, while his usual partner, Toledo, went 23-4 to claim the fifth-highest single-season doubles win percentage in program history at .852. Spec had the program's seventh-highest single-season win percentage in singles at .861.
The team combined for a 147-80 singles record and a 64-33 mark in doubles.
TEAM AWARDS
As handed out at the end-of-season banquet, the Gophers' team awards were as follows:
- Phil Brain Memorial Most Valuable Player Award -- Leandro Toledo
- Team Spirit Award -- Jeremy Lynn
- Louis Ratner Memorial Award (for contributions to Gopher Tennis) - Bob McNamara, Parents of Student-Athletes
- Bob McNamara Unsung Player of the Year -- Felix Corwin
- Jerry Noyce/Nike Most Improved Player Award -- Matic Spec
- Len Bailey Award Grit and Determination Award -- Eric Frueh
IN THE CLASSROOM, IN THE COMMUNITY
As usual, Minnesota's efforts were not confined to the court. All seven eligible players on the team--Mathieu Froment, Jack Hamburg, Eric Frueh, Leandro Toledo, Tucker Saxon, Ruben Weber and Jeremy Lynn--received Academic All-Big Ten honors.
Froment also earned CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 6 status and took home his second U of M top five award for having one of the top five grade point averages among University of Minnesota male student-athletes.
Lynn was named the September 2014 Most Valuable Gopher for community service, racking up the most volunteer hours for a male student-athlete that month. He volunteered at the annual HopeDay Festival, the Party of the Plaza and at a team preseason event.
At the 2015 Golden Goldy Awards, men's tennis received the Outstanding Academic Team Award and the Men's Team Community Service Award.
Players Mentioned
