Head coach Catrina Thompson began her first season by having Cammy Frei, Karyna Bihel and Kalyssa Hall compete in the Drake Invitational at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

The partnership of Frei and Bihel won the doubles consolation championship and Hall lost in the third place match.

“This tournament was a good opportunity for our girls to get some matches in and compete,” said assistant coach Brian Ward. “It was also good for myself to get to know our players and see where we are at and what we need to work on.”

After losing their first match on Friday, Frei and Bihel went on to win the consolation championship by beating University of North Dakota duo Jaylee Yasunaga and Isa Sullivan.

All the players who traveled participated in singles matches, too, and Hall made it the furthest of all the Gophers by finishing fourth. In the third place match, Hall lost to South Dakota’s Luana Stanciu.

“The more matches we played, the more comfortable we were with each other on the court,” Bihel said. 

This was the first tournament of the year for the Gophers. The coaches and players are trying to figure out the best matchups of girls together and figure out the areas that need work.

“I’m excited to see how [Ward] and [Thompson] coach us during matches and how different it will be than last year, along with how we do as a team,” Frei said.

The Gophers look forward to the Gopher Invitational next weekend where all the girls will be competing. 

“We are going to learn from every match we play,” Ward said. “At the Gopher Invite, we will be able to have all our girls competing and see where all their games are at and go from there.”