University of Minnesota Athletics
Four Gophers Begin Season at Wildcat Invitational
9/23/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Four men's tennis players will compete in the Wildcat Invitational hosted by Arizona University at the Ventana Canyon Resort in Tuscon, Ariz., this weekend. Ruben Weber and Jeremy Lynn will join freshmen Jesse Sprinkel and Justyn Levin as the first Gophers to hit the courts this season.
Last year Weber went 14-12 in singles and 5-1 in doubles play while Lynn went 7-7 in singles. Sprinkel is making his Gopher debut but is a familiar name for local tennis fans after having a strong high school career for Minneapolis South High School. Levin hails from Melbourne, Australia where he has already competed at a high level in Australian tournaments.
2014-15 Season In Review
The Gophers are coming off of a regular season Big Ten championship in a season where they went 21-8. They were strong at home going 12-0 at the Baseline Tennis Center. 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.
Returning Talent
The Maroon and Gold lost four seniors from last season in Mathieu Froment, Eric Frueh, Jack Hamburg and Leandro Toledo.
Despite losing a big core of their team they return plenty of talent. This year's team has two seniors in Weber and Tucker Saxon. Weber has been a mainstay in the Gophers lineup the past couple seasons while Saxon is the healthiest he has been in a while and will be looking to make a strong impact.
Jeremy Lynn is the lone junior on the squad providing leadership while Spec and Felix Corwin are both back after substantial freshmen seasons. Spec starts the season ranked No. 38 in the preseason polls while Corwin is No. 98.
Welcome to the Squad
Minnesota will have three news faces playing this fall with one more to join in January for dual match season. This fall Sprinkel out of Minneapolis South High School, Levin a Melbourne, Australia native and Marino Alpeza of Mostar, Bosnia all join the team.
Get to know the three of them by checking out their "First Serve" features and clicking below.
Sprinkel
Levin
Alpeza
Looking Ahead
Corwin and Spec will each compete in the ITA All-Americans held at Tulsa, Okla. which starts Oct. 5. The ITA Regionals are set to take place starting Oct. 15 at Fayetteville, Ark.
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Players Mentioned
