The Wisconsin women’s tennis team (6-6) will travel to Minneapolis, Minn., this weekend for a Saturday afternoon match against their rivals, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (8-4).
The Badgers are hoping to snap a six-match losing streak, one that has seen them fall to a 6-6 record on the year so far. Last weekend, the Badgers suffered two defeats on their road trip to Virginia, where they faced off against the Virginia Tech Hokies and James Madison Dukes.
The team was beaten 6-1 by an undefeated Hokies team, with their only point of the day coming from a singles match in which UW’s Melissa Pick defeated Virginia Tech’s Katherine Butler 6-2, 6-4. Although unranked at the time of the match last weekend, the Hokies now stand at No. 30 in the latest ITA rankings.
Two days later, the Badgers took on James Madison, ultimately losing a close match by a score of 4-3. The two teams each took three of the six singles matches, but JMU was able to secure the win from the doubles portion of the match. Although undefeated, the Dukes remain outside the latest rankings.
This weekend, Wisconsin will try to forget their recent struggles as they head to the Twin Cities to play Minnesota. The Gophers are also on a bit of a losing skid, losing three out of their last four matches. Last weekend, UM traveled to Washington where it lost a close match to Washington State by the score of 4-3, before posting a dominant win over Eastern Washington, 7-0.
Like UW, the Gophers are not currently ranked and do not have any ranked players for either singles or doubles. The Badgers do have one ranked player, with freshman Lexi Keberle at No. 111 in the ITA Top 125 singles players.
Minnesota has been dominant on its home court this season, holding a record of 7-1 while playing there. Its singular loss came to the University of Utah during the Courtside Classic tournament in Minneapolis in early February.
This will be the first game of conference play for Wisconsin, who will exclusively play Big Ten opponents until the start of the Big Ten conference tournament in late April. The Big Ten currently has five teams in the top 50, with four of those falling within the top 25.
The match will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis.
