University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Successful At Gopher Invite
9/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
Tournament Results
The University of Minnesota women's tennis team showed true physical and mental toughness throughout a long first weekend of play at the Gopher Invite finishing 23-9 in singles while picking up six doubles draw victories.
Jessika Mozia won every double draw she played while having a different freshman counter part every time. She won today with Annemarie Emme to finish 6-0 in doubles on the weekend.
Caitlyn Merzbacher and Mehvish Safdar also picked up a doubles victory today. Merzbacher also went a perfect 6-0 in doubles on the weekend.
Mozia took third place in the top flight of the tournament with her opponenet withdrawing today's match. She paced the Gophers to start her senior season with the perfect start in doubles and finishing 3-1 in singles play.
"It feels good. I feel like it was a great starting point and also a good way to gain confidence throughout the fall season," Mozia said. "I now know what I need to go back to the drawing board and work on so it is just a good starting point going into regionals in a couple weeks."
Safdar ended the weekend with a sixth place finish in the top flight and Camila Vargas Gomez took care of business winning her match today to take 11th in the top flight. The last match of the whole tournament was an intense one as Maja Vujic defeated Liza Buss in a tiebreaker set to win seventh place in the top flight.
Emme fell in the "B" Flight finals to a strong opponent in SIUE's Mia Frogner but still took home second in her first ever collegiate tournament.
"I think we came together as a team this weekend. It was nice to be able to cheer for your teammates and all get into it because we have only been practicing so far. It was a totally different atmosphere than I am used to. Having people supporting you at all times is awesome," Emme said. "It is such a different experience and I think it really helped me play well this weekend."
Merzbacher finished out her weekend with a third place finish in the "B" Flight to go 4-1 in singles. Alexandra Bergman picked up another win to move to 2-2 in singles after the weekend.
Overall the Gophers mindset was positive after their first weekend of play.
"I think we did really well," Mozia said. "Everyone came out and played. Everyone was fit mentally and physically and rallied behind each other. We all cheered each other on and I really think we made a name for ourselves."
Players Mentioned
