University of Minnesota Athletics
University of Minnesota
Milwaukee
Gophers Improve to 5-1
1/30/2016 12:00:00 AM | Tennis
The University of Minnesota Gophers improved to 5-1 on the season and 4-0 at the Baseline Tennis Center with a 7-0 victory over UW-Milwaukee followed by a 6-1 win over the University of South Dakota.
"If you would have said we were going to be 5-1 to start I would take it," head coach Chuck Merzbacher said. "We are trying to get everybody ready and I think everybody is doing a good job of that. We have a lot of nationally ranked teams or rivals the rest of the way through."
The Gophers took the doubles point for their fifth straight match, winning all three matches over Milwaukee. Playing in the No. 1 spot, Paula Rincon-Otero and Annemarie Emme were first to finish their match with a 6-1 win against Milwaukee's Labina Petrovska and Hayley Marshall earning their third straight together.
Seniors Julia Courter and Jessika Mozia followed close behind, winning 6-3 against Dana Shannon and Masha Lobanova and securing the Gopher doubles point in the No. 2 spot. Courter slammed the ball down with authority to take the final game.
"They (Courter and Mozia) won a lot of matches together at the No. 2 spot last year," Merzbacher said.
Shortly after, Mehvish Safdar and Caitlyn Merzbacher finished their match against Alysa Straub and Aerielle Pendleton winning 6-2.
The Gophers also dominated in singles, winning all of their matches.
Rincon-Otero was first to finish her match against Marshall in the No. 2 spot (6-0, 6-0) with Camila Vargas-Gomez following against Lobanova (6-0, 6-1).
Mehvish Safdar secured the Gopher win after defeating UW-Milwaukee's Shannon (6-1, 6-0) in the No. 4 spot. Courter and Emme won their matches next with scores of 6-0, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-1 respectively. Maja Vujic, pulled in the final Gopher win after a long battle against Pendleton (6-1, 7-5). She was down 5-2 in the second set before storming back and taking the next five games.
The Gophers kept their doubles pairings the same against South Dakota and it paid off as they took their sixth straight doubles point.
Safdar and Merzbacher won first beating Mili Pavlovic and Yuliya Sidenko 6-1 to move to 4-0 on the season together. Rincon and Emme kept their dominance going at the No. 1 spot with a 6-0 victory over Emme Krandendonk and Elise van Zijst. They are now 5-0 together this season. Just seconds behind Courter and Mozia took a 6-1 victory over Anastasia Bondarenko and Ellie Burns.
In singles, Vujic won her fifth straight match in a row improving to 10-4 on the season with a (6-0, 6-0) win over Maria Pandya to bump the Gophers lead to 2-0 over USD.
The rest of the second sets tightened up a bit as USD picked up their level of play.
"This was South Dakota's first match. They are picked second in the Summit League. In all of the second sets they stepped up well which was a good test for us," Merzbacher said. "(Brett Barnett) does a good job coaching there and they are going to be competing for their conference title."
At the No. 4 spot Mozia came away with a (6-2, 6-3) victory over Pavlovic followed by Safdar pulling out a (6-0, 6-4) win over van Zijst for her fifth straight singles victory.
Rincon-Otero continued her strong play this season picking up a (6-2, 6-2) win over Sidenko at the No. 2 spot. She is 8-3 in singles and 11-4 in doubles so far this season.
"I feel good about how I have been practicing and everything you do in practice is going to reflect well to matches," Rincon-Otero said. "I also think I have really improved my mental aspect of the game"
Courter moved to 3-0 in the No. 1 singles spot picking up a (6-3, 6-1) win over Burns. USD took the No. 3 singles spot in the most back and forth battle of the whole day. USD's Kranendonk dropped the first set to Emme 6-0 but bounced back to take the second 6-3. The tiebreak saw both players trade points the whole way but Kranendonk won 10-8 to avoid getting shutout by Minnesota.
The win moves Merzbacher to 399 career wins in his coaching career. He will be looking to pick up 400 at a very special event. Next weekend Minnesota is reestablishing the Courtside Classic inviting three of the nation's top teams (New Mexico, Mississippi State, DePaul) in the county to the Baseline Tennis Center. Make sure to follow along on social media @GopherWTennis for information on the Courtside Classic. The action will start next Saturday at 10 a.m.
#60 Minnesota 7, Milwaukee 0
Singles competition
1. Julia Courter (MINN) def. Labina Petrovska (UWM) 6-0, 6-2
2. Paula Rincon-Otero (MINN) def. Hayley Marshall (UWM) 6-0, 6-0
3. Annemarie Emme (MINN) def. Alysa Straub (UWM) 6-2, 6-1
4. Mehvish Safdar (MINN) def. Dana Shannon (UWM) 6-1, 6-0
5. Maja Vujic (MINN) def. Aerielle Pendleton (UWM) 6-1, 7-5
6. Camila Vargas Gomez (MINN) def. Masha Lobanova (UWM) 6-0, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Paula Rincon-Otero/Annemarie Emme (MINN) def. Labina Petrovska/Hayley Marshall (UWM) 6-1
2. Julia Courter/Jessika Mozia (MINN) def. Dana Shannon/Masha Lobanova (UWM) 6-3
3. Mehvish Safdar/Caitlyn Merzbacher (MINN) def. Alysa Straub/Aerielle Pendleton (UWM) 6-2
Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2,3) Singles (2,6,4,1,3,5)
#60 Minnesota 6, South Dakota 1
Singles competition
1. Julia Courter (MINN) def. Burns,Ellie (USD) 6-3, 6-1
2. Paula Rincon-Otero (MINN) def. Sidenko,Yuliya (USD) 6-2, 6-2
3. Kranendonk,Emma (USD) def. Annemarie Emme (MINN) 0-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8)
4. Jessika Mozia (MINN) def. Pavlovic,Milica (USD) 6-2, 6-3
5. Mehvish Safdar (MINN) def. van Zijst,Elise (USD) 6-0, 6-4
6. Maja Vujic (MINN) def. Pandya,Maria (USD) 6-0, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. Paula Rincon-Otero/Annemarie Emme (MINN) def. Kranendonk,Emma/van Zijst,Elise (USD) 6-0
2. Julia Courter/Jessika Mozia (MINN) def. Burns,Ellie/Bondarenko,Anastasia (USD) 6-1
3. Mehvish Safdar/Caitlyn Merzbacher (MINN) def. Pavlovic,Milica/Sidenko,Yuliya (USD) 6-1
Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1,2) Singles (6,4,5,2,1,3)
Players Mentioned
