University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Head East for Two
2/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
The No. 45 University of Minnesota Gophers are headed out east to take on No. 40 Dartmouth Friday and will have a rematch against No. 16 Columbia on Sunday.
Last time out the Maroon and Gold topped UW-Green Bay 5-2 at the Baseline Tennis Center with singles victories in the No. 1-5 spots. They fell 5-2 to No. 35 Drake taking the doubles point and getting a victory from Ruben Weber.
The Lineup
Matic Spec has played in the No. 1 spot in six of the Gophers and is 6-6 overall on the season.
Felix Corwin has played in the No. 2 spot with one match in the No. 1 spot. He currently sits with a 7-5 overall record after missing a bit of time with an injury.
Ruben Weber has a team leading 11-5 singles record. He is 3-1 at the No. 2 spot and currently has a three match win streak.
Freshmen Justyn Levin and Josip Krstanovic have both played in the No. 3, 4 and 5 spots. Levin is has an 8-8 overall singles record this season. Krstanovic joined the team for the spring season and is 3-5 overall
Another freshman in Marino Alpeza has gotten matches in at the No. 5 and 6 spot and is 8-7 this season. Jeremy Lynn grabbed a win at the No. 6 spot this season as well.
Doubles
The Gophers duo of Spec and Corwin have proven to be one of the nation's top doubles team. They are ranked No. 10 and sit as the highest ranked Big Ten doubles tandem. They have picked up two wins this season over now No. 5 Arjun Kadhe and Julian Cash and are now 7-3 overall.
Recently Spec and Lynn have teamed up to win three straight matches together. Weber and Alpeza are 4-4 together including recording a 2-2 record together at the No. 1 spot. The Gophers have taken the doubles point in five of their eight matches.
Against Columbia
The Gophers played Columbia earlier this season at the ITA Kick-off falling 4-0 but despite the score, were competitive on the day with doubles coming down to the wire and having three singles spots win the first set before seeing their matches go unfinished.
Levin and Krstanovic took a 7-6 (5) victory over Miguel Alda and Eric Rubin for Minnesota's only win on the day.
In singles Spec, Weber and Alpeza all won their first set. Spec took his 6-2 in the No. 1 spot, Weber 7-6 in the No. 2 spot and Alpeza 7-5 in the 6 spot.
About Dartmouth
The Big Green come into this weekend 7-4 overall. They are ranked No. 40 overall and have picked up wins over No. 37 Drake and No. 32 Tulane both in dramatic fashion winning 4-3. They started February on a three match losing skid before winning twice last weekend over Brown and St. Johns.
They have six players with 10 or more wins on the season led by Max Fliegner who is 13-6 overall winning matches at the No. 2, 3, 4 and 5 spots. Dovydas Sakinis is ranked No. 50 in singles, according to the ITA.
About Columbia
The Lions are 4-3 overall on the season after winning four matches to start the season. They won the ITA-Kickoff advancing to the ITA Team Indoor Championships where they lost three matches to some of the top teams in the nation including 4-3 losses to Georgia and Baylor.
Victor Pham and Eric Rubin are both ranked in the top 125 for singles, according to the ITA.
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Players Mentioned
