With six straight victories against ranked opponents, Minnesota’s men’s tennis team moved up one spot to No. 10 in the latest ITA national rankings. It is the highest ranking for the Gophers since the team finished the 1985-86 season rated ninth in the country.

The Gophers defeated No. 29 Harvard, No. 33 Clemson and No. 73 Boise State last weekend in the Harvard Invitational.

Minnesota will face another test this weekend with matches against No. 16 Virginia Commonwealth and No. 20 Wake Forest in Richmond, Va. The Gophers also have upcoming nonconference matches against No. 35 Rice, No. 3 Baylor and No. 9 Texas in the next three weeks.

Men’s track

Minnesota’s men’s track and field team is ranked eighth in the USTCA Team Power rankings for NCAA Division I. The ranking system has Minnesota with 244.65 overall team points, just 17 points behind top-ranked Louisiana State University.

The Team Power Ranking is a unique system of ranking teams on the basis of quality of athletic performance, team depth and dual meet scoring potential.

The Gophers are currently ranked behind No. 7 Penn State. Minnesota ranks ahead of two Big Ten opponents, 11th-ranked Indiana and 25th-ranked Wisconsin.

Minnesota will next compete in the Iowa State Classic on Feb. 14-15 in Ames, Iowa.

Softball

Minnesota’s softball team heads to Arizona this weekend for the Pepsi Arizona Classic in Tucson. The Gophers will face Florida International, No. 2 Arizona, No. 6 Washington, Arkansas and Northwestern from Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 14-16, at Rita Hillenbrand Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Arizona.

Round-robin play determines the tournament champion.

The Maroon and Gold opened the 2003 season last weekend, hosting the Metrodome Classic. The Gophers went 6-0 to capture their third consecutive team title at the Classic. Minnesota outscored its opponents 33-1 and has only allowed opponent batters to hit .133 against its pitching.