Sophomores Felix Corwin and Matic Spec managed to build their chemistry quickly despite only playing together for the second time.
The duo won the doubles championship at the ITA Regional Championships on Tuesday, so they can compete at the National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in November in New York.
“It was obviously a performance I was really happy with,” Corwin said. “Both Matic and I served well and then turned well. … We beat really good teams because of it.”
Minnesota went 10-7 overall in singles and 5-2 in doubles at the tournament.
Corwin and Spec won the first set of the championship match 7-6 against sophomore Julian Cash and junior Arjun Kadhe of Oklahoma State University. Corwin and Spec were shut out in the next set but won the final set 10-6.
“It’s awesome that they get to be rewarded for that and head to New York,” head coach Geoff Young said.
Corwin also performed well in singles, going 4-1. He lost in the semifinal round to Cash.
“I would’ve liked to have gone a little farther,” Corwin said. “But [the tournament] was still [positive] for me.”
Spec was the No. 1 seed in singles and received a bye in the first round. He was upset in his first match by unseeded Andrew Dzulynsky of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
“I need to do a better job,” Spec said. “I played a lot of double faults. … Now I know what to work on.”
The two Minnesota doubles teams besides the group of Corwin and Spec both finished 0-1.
Ryba stands out for women’s team
The women’s team went 7-10 in singles and 5-5 in doubles at the ITA Central Region Championships, bowing out of the competition on Monday.
“We brought 10, we just threw them out there, and they did a good job,” head coach Chuck Merzbacher said.
The Gophers struggled in singles with six first-round exits. The four players to win at least one singles match were redshirt senior Julia Courter, freshman Camila Vargas Gomez, sophomore Mehvish Safdar and sophomore Caroline Ryba.
“We had some middle- or bottom-of-the-lineup [players] playing some top-of-the-lineup [players] on other teams,” Merzbacher said. “There were some good wins in the consolation.”
Ryba went the farthest of any Minnesota player in the singles tournament, going 4-1. Her tournament ended after she lost in two sets to freshman Anastasiya Rychagova of the University of Kansas.
“I competed well towards the end,” Ryba said. “The last match was tough. I think it was a good tournament and good start to the fall.”
The doubles groups of senior Jessika Mozia and freshman Caitlyn
Merzbacher, along with Courter and senior Paula Rincon-Otero tied for the best doubles record on the team at 2-1.
Merzbacher said he felt good about the tournament despite the team’s overall losing record.
“[With] the teams we’re playing down there, it’s important to really compete,” Merzbacher said. “Not just every point but every shot.”
