The Minnesota women’s tennis team rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the Big Ten final at Michigan on Saturday to pull within a point, but Northwestern held on to a key singles point to take the win.
The five-and-a-half-hour match ended at No. 6 singles, where Minnesota’s Tammy Wang and Northwestern’s Jennifer Lutgert battled to a third-set tiebreaker. Lutgert won the match 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) to clinch the title.
Minnesota won the doubles point and Nora Sauska and Sandra Olsen won their singles matches for the Gophers.
The Gophers rolled through their first two matches of the weekend to make it to the championship match. They were seeded fourth in the tournament.