University of Minnesota Athletics
Women's Tennis Announces 2015-16 Schedule
8/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
2015-16 Schedule
The University of Minnesota women's tennis team announced its 2015-16 schedule with two tournaments and 11 home matches held at the Baseline Tennis Center this year. The fall will see them take action in three team tournaments along with four individual tournaments. The spring has 24 dual matches slated. They will play 11 teams who ended the season ranked in the final ITA rankings. The Gophers went 17-10 last season with an impressive 11-3 home record and finished ranked No. 57.
Minnesota will be looking to replace strong leadership in last year's seniors Tereza Brichacova and Aria Lambert but return plenty of experience with three seniors, two juniors and two sophomores on this year's squad.
The senior duo of Julia Courter and Paula Rincon-Otero finished ranked No. 8 in the region and No. 50 in the nation last year. Courter sits 25th all-time for most singles victories in a Gopher career. Senior Jessika Mozia will be a force coming into the season with 64 singles victories in her career. Sophomore Caroline Ryba will look to keep momentum going after a strong freshman season going 20-12 at the No. 1 and No. 2 spots. The team adds three freshmen in Annemarie Emme, Caitlyn Merzbacher and Camila Vargas Gomez.
"We are going to pretty young and we have challenged the young kids with a tough schedule," Coach Chuck Merzbacher said. "There is no hiding. We will be prepared for the Big Ten season and hopefully that challenging schedule will pay off for us. We made the schedule with making the NCAA Tournament in mind."
The Gophers kick off play at the Baseline Tennis Center as all come Sept. 25-27 for the annual Gopher Invitational. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, South Dakota, UW-Milwaukee, North Dakota, UW-Green Bay, Wisconsin, South Dakota State, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Air Force and Northern Illinois will travel into Minnesota for the invite this year.
The All-American Championships will take place at Pacific Palisadres, Cal., followed by the ITA Central Region Championships in Stillwater, Okla., from Oct. 15-19.
If any players qualify the ITA National Indoors will take place Nov. 12-15 with the rest of the team finishing up fall play at the ASU Thunderbird Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., Nov. 13-15.
The spring season starts Jan. 17 at the Baseline Tennis Center with the Gophers squaring off against Northern Illinois and North Dakota. Minnesota has never lost to North Dakota and will face UNI for the first time ever. The ITA Kick-Off Weekend takes place Jan. 23-24 with Minnesota heading to College Station, Texas, where Wichita State, Texas A & M and South Alabama will all be competing as well. All three of those teams finished last season ranked in the final ITA rankings.
The Maroon and Gold will wrap up January with home matches on Jan. 30 against UW-Milwaukee and another opponent they have never faced before in South Dakota. Three more teams that finished ranked in the final ITA rankings in New Mexico, Mississippi State and De Paul come to town Feb. 6-7 for the Courtside Classic at Baseline.
"We are excited to resurrect the Courtside Classic here at Baseline. It has been a great tournament over the years. We are bringing in three teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last year," Merzbacher said.
The Gophers will head to Dartmouth on Feb. 20 and go across the border to Madison to take on Wisconsin Feb. 26 and Utah in Madison on Feb. 27 to finish out the month. Minnesota will be looking for their first ever win over Utah. Dartmouth and Utah both finished in the final ITA rankings.
A busy March will start with Buffalo and Iowa State coming to Baseline March 4-6 and nonconference play will wrap up after a trip to play San Diego State on March 14. This will be the first time the Gophers have ever played Buffalo and just the second time in history that they will play San Diego State. They are 31-1 all-time against Iowa State including a 4-1 victory over the Cyclones last season.
After not playing Penn State last year Minnesota will host the Nittany Lions March 18 before a three match road stint to conferences foes Ohio State, Nebraska and Iowa at the end of the month.
April will showcase six more Big Ten matches before postseason play begins starting with home matches against Michigan State April 1 and Michigan April 3. Purdue on April 15 and Indiana April 17 mark the last time in the regular season that Minnesota will be on the road with Maryland and Rutgers rounding out the last two matches at home.
Illinois and Northwestern, two big ten teams that handed the Gophers losses last season, will not be on the slate for regular season play this year for Minnesota.
The Big Ten Tournament will take place starting April 28. Last season the Gophers eliminated Michigan State 4-1 in the first round of the tournament before falling 4-0 to Michigan in the quarterfinal round to have their season come to an end. NCAA Regionals takes place starting the weekend of May 13 with the Gophers searching for their first birth in three years.
Players Mentioned
