A packed home crowd wasn’t enough to lift the Gophers to a victory on Friday, but the team was able to win on Sunday.
Minnesota (7-14, 1-6 Big Ten) lost to Michigan 4-1 at the Baseline Tennis Center to start the weekend but beat Michigan State 4-0 in its second dual.
The Gophers drew a large crowd during their Friday Student Night but lost two doubles matches to concede the doubles point.
The team then went 1-3 in singles to lose the dual, with sophomore Felix Crowin earning Minnesota’s lone singles victory.
The Gophers rebounded on Sunday against the Spartans while playing in an outdoor court.
“We didn’t know we were going to play outside until the last hour [before the meet],” sophomore Matic Spec said. “We practiced outside in the morning, and we practiced outside before the match. That’s just how it goes in Big Ten; you just never know. It is what it is, and you just got to play with it.”
Spec and Corwin combined to win a doubles match, and junior Jeremy Lynn and freshman Justyn Levin won another to give the Gophers the doubles point.
Levin, Spec and Lynn all won their singles matches to give Minnesota its first Big Ten victory of the season.
“We just are always trying to get better,” head coach Geoff Young said. “Today was a little bit different because it was our first time outside in a while, and we haven’t practiced outside a lot recently. It was good practice for us, good practice.”
