Minnesota drops final game of extended road trip
The University of Minnesota women’s tennis team traveled to Evanston this afternoon as they looked to rebound from Friday’s loss to Champaign. Each team entered the game ranked in the top 50 in the latest ITA poll, Minnesota at No. 42 and Northwestern at No. 39. The hosts continued their winning start to Big Ten play, as they beat the Gophers a day after their conference opener against Wisconsin.
With today’s loss, Minnesota goes 12-5 on the season, 1-3 in conference play. The Gophers return to Baseline Tennis Center next weekend as their long road streak comes to an end. They host Michigan on Friday in what will likely be the Gophers’ third straight game.
The singles matches were split into three matches each, while Northwestern took the deciding point with doubles match wins.
In doubles, Northwestern won games at No. 1 and No. 3, securing the point for the Wildcats. Dalila Said and Anfisa Danilchenko the match at No. 2 remained unfinished due to earlier results.
In singles, Minnesota had wins at No. 1, No. 2, and No. 4. At fourth, Maria Rizolo picked up her second victory of the weekend by defeating Ema Lazic. At number 2, Emilee Duong fought back, winning the second and third sets 7-5 and 6-4 to close out his win. Northwestern won in straight sets at the No. 3 and No. 5 positions. In sixth place, Dalila Said forced a third set, but couldn’t conclude her match against Christina Hand.
At the first post, Rachel Hanford faced the 87th ranked singles player, Clarissa Hand. After a first set back and forth in favor of Northwestern, Hanford bounced back. His run to close the second set at 7-5 forced a third, which Hanford won 6-3. It was Hanford’s first ranked win of the season.
Next step :
Minnesota returns to Minneapolis next weekend as they take on Michigan and Michigan State at the Baseline Tennis Center. Their game against the Wolverines is at 3:30 p.m. Friday, while the Spartans game is at 11:00 a.m. Sunday. Live streaming and coverage will be available on the GopherSports website, along with updates on GopherWTennis Twitter.