University of Minnesota Athletics
Big Weekend Ahead for Gophers
1/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
LIVE SCORING
The No. 61 ranked University of Minnesota Gophers have a big weekend ahead as they travel down to College Station, Texas for the ITA Kick-off weekend.
The Gophers will take on No. 37 Wichita State at 3 p.m. Saturday, January 23, to get things started. Depending on the outcomes they will take on either Texas A & M (No. 10) or South Alabama (No. 73) on Sunday. The team that leaves the weekend with two wins will head to the ITA Division I National Women's Team Indoor Championships.
This will be the fourth time in program history that Minnesota will compete in the ITA Kick-off weekend. They are still searching for their first victory at the prestigious event.
"I think it is good for us to play this kind of competition early to see where we are at. See how our lineup stacks up, see how our doubles stack up. It is an important weekend," head coach Chuck Merzbacher said.
One focus from the team this year has been getting back into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2012 season.
"We talked about as a team that they are going to be challenging matches but if we get them it will be big for us at the end of the season," sophomore Caroline Ryba said. "I think we are ready. This past weekend we had two strong wins and I think it is just a matter of going out and competing really well."
Starting Strong
The Gophers opened dual match season with two 7-0 victories. They showed their depth with two different lineups and different doubles parings used in the victory. They got things rolling with a win over Northern Illinois and followed it up topping North Dakota.
In doubles the pair of Jessika Mozia and Caitlyn Merzbacher have improved to 7-1 on the season after picking up two more victories. Paula Rincon-Otero and Camila Vargas are 3-1 together after another win this past weekend.
Rincon-Otero stayed strong in singles as well moving her current win streak to five. Annemarie Emme, Merzbacher, Mehvish Safdar, and Maja Vujic all have eight singles victories so far this season. Ryba has seven and picked up a win at No. 1 singles this weekend. Julia Courter played a match at the No. 1 singles spot as well and came out with a strong victory.
About the ITA Kick-Off Weekend
Sixty teams get invited to take part in the ITA Kick-off Weekend. The top three teams per region according to the final ITA Div. I national team rankings if ranked in the top 75 make up 36 teams. The remaining 24 teams are invited based on the final ITA national rankings.
The No. 1 team in each site will face the No. 4 team. The No. 2 team will face the No. 3 team with two matches are guaranteed for the weekend counting as two team dates. The 15 schools that win both of their matches at these events will be invited to play in the 2016 ITA National Indoor Championship with the host school receiving an automatic invite to the final 16. The women's will be hosted at the University of Wisconsin this year.
About Wichita State
Wichita State started off strong topping Saint Louis and Missouri State each 6-1 last Friday evening. They picked up a huge 5-2 win over No. 35 at the time Oklahoma. It was the highest-ranked dual win since 2010.
They are led by Sophomore Gabriela Porubin (11-7) who tied for the 125th and final spot in the fall rankings - moved up 54 notches to No. 71 after compiling an 11-5 mark in tournament play. Porubin is the Missouri Valley Conference's highest-rated player. Giulia Guidetti is 16-4 already this season. WSU won the doubles point all three wins so far and are paced by Porubin alongside Julia Schiller in doubles who are 11-2 together.
About Texas A & M
The Aggies first match of the season will be at the ITA Kick-Off weekend taking on South Alabama. They find themselves ranked No. 10 in the nation are picked to finish fourth in the SEC. They return all seven letterwinners from last year's team that went 11-2 in SEC play to tie Georgia and eventual NCAA champion Vanderbilt for second place in the conference standings. The Aggies went 17-6 overall in 2015 and were No. 10 in the final national rankings after reaching the NCAA Championship round of 16.
They are under direction of first-year head coach Mark Weaver and led by junior Saska Gavrilovska, who garnered All-America status after reaching the round of 16 at the 2015 NCAA Singles Championship. At No. 53, Gavrilovska enters the spring as the highest ranked A&M player in the Oracle/ITA singles rankings.
About South Alabama
The Jaguars are 1-1 after opening play last weekend. They lost to No. 28 South Carolina 6-1 and rallied to beat Furman 4-3 after starting down 3-0.
In the fall, freshman Alexandria Stiteler led the Jaguars 10-2 in singles play with her first eight matches as wins. Laura Volkova , a junior, won five out of her first six matches to obtain a 7-5 record overall in singles and 6-4 in doubles.
Milestone Watch
Courter currently sits 21st all-time for most single victories in a Gophers career with 70 and 25th all-time for most doubles victory in a career with 62. Mozia sits 23rd all-time for most singles victories with 68 and 24th in doubles with 63 in her career. Coach Chuck Merzbacher is just four wins away from hitting 400 in his career.
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Players Mentioned
