Minnesota men’s tennis coach Geoff Young brought six of the eight players on his roster to the Northwestern Invitational in Evanston, Ill., this weekend so his inexperienced squad would finally be able to compete against players from other schools.

Throughout the first month and a half of the fall season, a majority of the team, other than No. 1 singles player Raoul Schwark, hadn’t participated in a single fall tournament. Instead, the Gophers were forced to play challenge matches among themselves during practice the first few weeks of the season.

Minnesota enjoyed a fresh array of competition over the weekend, competing against players from Northwestern, Wisconsin, DePaul and Western Michigan.

But Saturday the Gophers couldn’t escape playing one another, yet again.

In the Flight A singles bracket, senior Pierre Dumas squared off with teammate Sebastian Gallego. Gallego, a freshman playing in his first collegiate event, came out on top, 6-1, 1-6, 10-6.

–Zach Eisendrath

Minnesota drops meet to Florida

It was close but not meant to be for the No. 10 Minnesota men’s swimming and diving team.

The Gophers dropped their dual meet against No. 8 Florida at the Dorothy L. Sheppard pool on Saturday.

Freshman Curt Carlson took the 100 freestyle but the Gators won four of the last five events to secure a win.

Junior Cole Young won the 1 and 3 meter diving titles for Minnesota.

–Paul J. Cordes

Gators too strong for women as well

The women followed in the tracks of the men Saturday as they too fell to a ranked Florida squad.

The Gophers were led by freshman breaststroker Jillian Tyler, who had three wins and hit two NCAA A cut times but the Gators were too much, beating Minnesota 168-132.

–Paul J. Cordes