University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head to Central Region Championships
10/19/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers will be traveling to Stillwater, Okla. to compete in the ITA Central Region Championships Oct. 20-24.
"This weekend will be a great opportunity for our team to practice competing," head coach Geoff Young said. "I know they are looking forward to watching each other as well. It will no doubt be a good learning experience."
2015 Tournament
Last year the Gophers collected 13 singles match victories and five doubles match victories as Felix Corwin and Matic Spec won the doubles draw. The pair defeated the No. 1 seed Arjun Kadhe and Julian Cash of Oklahoma whom they recently competed against at the ITA All-American Championships.
Gopher Singles Participants
The Maroon and Gold will have everyone on the roster competing in the tournament. Six of the returners played in the tournament last season.
Marino Alpeza is coming off of a 12-win season and picked up two singles match wins at last year's regional championship.
Fellow sophomore Justyn Levin also had two wins in last year's tournament and collected 12 wins over the season.
Corwin played his way into the semifinal with four singles match wins before falling 6-1, 6-4. During the season he had 11 victories and was 2-1 versus nationally ranked opponents. This fall Corwin played in the ITA All-American Championships where he was 2-1 in singles.
Spec picked up two wins in the regional tournament and 15 wins during the season. He also had one win over a nationally ranked opponent. At the ITA All-American Championships, Spec fell in his two singles matches.
Both Jesse Sprinkel and Jeremy Lynn fell in the first round of the main draw and in the consolation round in last season's tournament. Lynn finished the season with six wins.
Sophomore Josip Krstanovic did not participate in the tournament last season but finished 2016 with five wins.
The Central Region Championships will be the Maroon and Gold debut for freshman George Lovitt, Stefan Milicevic and Eli Ogilvy.
Gopher Doubles Participants
Corwin and Spec will play together in doubles to defend their 2015 finals victory. Last season the two Gophers were 11-3 together and defeated one nationally ranked pair. They are No. 13 in the 2016 ITA pre-season rankings and were 2-2 at the All-American Championships as they played some of the top pairs in the country.
The other pair that played with each other last year will be Krstanovic and Lynn. They were 1-1 after winning their last match of the season.
The rest of the returners will be teamed up with freshmen. Alpeza will be teamed up with Milicevic, Ogilvy and Levin will be a duo and Lovitt and Sprinkel will play together.
You can follow the Gophers as they compete on Twitter, Facebook or watch all the action live on Oklahoma State's live streaming video.
Players Mentioned
